Dear ASA community,
We look forward to seeing you March 12-15 in Lexington for the 2020 Appalachian Studies Association conference, our annual feast of learning and collegiality.
In light of the ongoing spread of COVID-19 illness and concerns about travel, we wanted to reach out with a few updates.
The University of Kentucky is planning to hold the ASA conference as scheduled. Update: As of March 7, we do want everyone to be aware that there is now a confirmed case of COVID-19 in Lexington, but the conference is still moving forward at this time. We will notify of any changes in plans.
University rules require fourteen day self-isolation of all inbound travelers from countries under a US Department of State level 3 or 4 warning, or a CDC level 3 warning. As of March 5. 2020, those warnings cover China, Iran, Italy and South Korea. If anyone has been to a Level 3 country in the past month please cancel your trip to the University of Kentucky per the university's instructions for the safety of our community. If you are a presenter and this applies to you, please contact the program chair (jennifer.cramer@uky.edu) so that she can cancel your presentation and update the addendum to the program.
The University of Kentucky will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation with updates from the Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization, and state and local health officials. UK's information page about COVID-19 is available at https://uknow.uky.edu/coronavirus-response.
The program team will reach out right away if there are developments requiring changes to ASA 2020. In other words, no news is good news and means we will be moving forward as planned. Program participants begin arriving Wednesday, March 11, so if changes must be made we will announce those by Tuesday March 10. We are excited to welcome you to Lexington! We anticipate a rich and fruitful gathering and look forward to seeing you next week.
Sincerely, ASA 2020 Program Committee