Sophia M. Enríquez
President
Sophia M. Enríquez (she/her/ella) works at the intersections of Latinx, Appalachian, and Southern music, migration, and regional culture. She is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Music at Duke University where she also teaches in the Program for Latino/a Studies in the Global South. Sophia earned her PhD in ethnomusicology at Ohio State University as well as graduate certificates in folklore and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality studies . Her monograph in progress, tentatively titled Canciones de Los Apalaches: Latinx Music, Migration, and Belonging in Appalachia is the first full-length study of Latinx creative practices in the Appalachian region and shows how longstanding narratives of Appalachias as a monolith have obscured the movement of Latinx people to and through the region over the past century.
Sophia is passionate about community-engaged scholarship and has worked on several public folklore projects across the Appalachian region and the South. She is also a practitioner of both Mexican and Appalachian folk music. Sophia performs with the Lua Project, a Mexican-Appalachian fusion band in Charlottesville, Virginia, and recently cofounded Son de Carolina, a Durham, NC-based collective dedicated to the study of the Mexican folk music tradition son jarocho.
Katherine E. Ledford
Vice President
Katherine E. Ledford is professor of Appalachian studies at Appalachian State University. She teaches courses in Appalachian literature, global mountain literature, comparative mountain studies, and higher education pedagogy. In spring 2023, as a Fulbright Scholar, she taught graduate classes in the English department at Al Ahliyya Amman University in Amman, Jordan. Her teaching project, From the Appalachian Mountains to the Jordanian Highlands: Appalachian Literature as Cross-cultural Text, fostered understanding through literature. From 2009 to 2016 Dr. Ledford served as program director of Appalachian studies, advising and mentoring both graduate and undergraduate students. In 2023, she was inducted into the Cratis D. Williams School of Graduate Studies' Academy of Outstanding Mentors. Dr. Ledford co-edited Writing Appalachia: An Anthology, a comprehensive anthology of Appalachian literature published by the University Press of Kentucky in March 2020. Dr. Ledford also co-edited Backtalk from Appalachia: Confronting Stereotypes (2000) and the media section of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia (2006). A past president of the Appalachian Studies Association (2011-2012), she is founding chair of the association’s International Connections Committee, which fosters communication between Appalachian studies scholars and mountain studies scholars worldwide.
Travis A. Rountree
Immediate Past President
Travis A. Rountree is an assistant professor in the English Department at Western Carolina University. He earned his PhD from the University of Louisville, his MA in English from Appalachian State University with a certificate in Appalachian Studies, and his BA in English from James Madison University with a minor in American Studies. He teaches first year composition courses as well as graduate courses in composition and rhetoric. His research interests include queer archival research and pedagogy, Country Music, Appalachian rhetorics, place-based pedagogy, and public memory studies. He has been published in The North Carolina Folklore Journal, Journal of Southern History, and Appalachian Journal. University of Kentucky Press will publish his book Hillsville Remembered: Public Memory, Historical Silence, and Appalachia’s Most Notorious Shoot out in March 2023. He has been active with the Appalachian Studies Association since his first conference in 2008.
Since then, he has served as Treasurer as well as the chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Since his term as Treasurer, he has been a member of the Steering Committee. Additionally, he has served on the Weatherford Award and Wilma Dykeman Fellowship Award Committees. Impressed with the progressive, inclusive action of ASA he is excited to contribute more to this vision as it empowers BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized voices in his new role as President.
Hailing from Richmond, Virginia, Travis has lived in Appalachia for most of his life and feels most at home there. He enjoys running, weightlifting, and gardening. He is an avid fan of old-time, bluegrass, and country music and lives in Sylva, NC with his two kitties. He serves as the chair of Sylva Pride and also is on the board of Blue Ridge Pride.
Kenton Butcher
Conference Chair
Emily Colleen Cobb
Secretary
From Walhalla, South Carolina, Emily Colleen Cobb is a doctoral student and graduate research assistant in the Literacy, Language, and Culture program at Clemson University. Emily's interests are in rural education and community literacies, place-based learning and writing, as well as, digital and social media literacies. As a former English teacher, she is dedicated to the work of public education and supporting young people across her community. With a deep reverence of her home in Southern Appalachia, she hopes to serve ASA and work in ways that further the organization's commitment to education and activism within Appalachia and beyond.
Danielle Quales
Treasurer and Finance Chair
Danielle first became involved in Appalachian studies over 15 years ago when she attended Appalachian State University and earned her master’s in the field. She then furthered her studies in Folklore and American Studies at Indiana University, focusing her research on gravestones and remembrance practices in the Appalachian region. Danielle has attended and presented at multiple App Studies conferences over the years. She has also been involved in nonprofit work her whole life, currently serving as Treasurer and multi-event chairperson for her son’s elementary school PTO in Cincinnati.
Stephanie Burdette
At Large
Stephanie Burdette is a lifelong resident of West Virginia, where she has worked as an elementary school teacher, middle school administrator, and university
professor. During her time in education, she has worked diligently to promote literacy education and enable her students to rise above the stereotypical perceptions most often associated with Appalachia. She is deeply involved in many state and national initiatives which aim to promote student growth and learning. She has worked for many years as the Co-Director of the Central WV Writing Project, which serves as the sponsor of the state’s largest student writing event (WV Young Writers Day). Additionally, she serves as a member of the WV Professional Teaching Standards Committee, WVPBS Steering Committee for the Above and Beyond Teacher Recognition Program, and Chair of the WVPTS Committee License Appeal Board.
Annalee Tull Lanier
At Large
Molly Updegrove
Y'ALL Co-Chair
Molly Updegrove is the Director of Outreach & Deputy Director of Programs for ReImagine Appalachia. Molly has a Master's in Social Work with a concentration in Community Organization and Social Action and years of experience implementing outreach and public policy plans as well as coordinating programs. Molly is a dedicated advocate for Appalachian issues and has spoken on a panel at the 2024 ASA conference and tabled at both the 2023 and 2024 conferences.
Moriah Alford
Y'ALL Co-Chair
Jed DeBruin
Archivist/Special Collections Chair
Originally from Athens County in southeastern Appalachian Ohio, Jed DeBruin (he/him) is a PhD candidate and graduate instructor in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky. Jed's research interests include food justice, race & racism, political economy (especially Marxian economics), Appalachia, and political ecologies. He is currently conducting his dissertation research integrating archival methods on Black farming history in Appalachian Kentucky with oral histories with present-day Black farmers in the region. Prior to coming to the University of Kentucky, Jed earned a M.A. in Geography from West Virginia University (2019), and a B.A. in Geography from Ohio State University (2017). Outside of his research, he is an avid backyard chicken farmer.
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Christina Fisanick
Journal Co-Editor
Christina Fisanick teaches writing and literature at Pennsylvania Western University and is an internationally known expert in digital storytelling. A native West Virginian, her creative and scholarly work often explores themes of labor, resilience, and identity in working-class communities. Fisanick is a founding member and current president of the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia (WANA) and the co-host of WANA LIVE!: The Virtual Reading Series. She is the author or editor of more than 30 books, including Pulling the Thread: Untangling Wheeling History (North Meridian 2024) and Digital Storytelling as Public History: A Guidebook for Educators (Routledge 2020). Her shorter works have appeared in Still: The Journal, Archiving Appalachia, Rust Belt Magazine, the Journal of Appalachian Studies, and Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, among others. Learn more at christinafisanick.com
Cicero M. Fain, III
Liaison Office
Cicero M. Fain, III, Ph.D., is a native of Huntington, WV. He received his B. A. from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and his M.Ed. from George Mason University. He is the recipient of the Carter G. Woodson Fellowship from Marshall University and received his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from The Ohio State University. His teaching career includes positions at Marshall, Ohio University-Southern, Niagara University, and the College of Southern Maryland. He has authored several articles in peer-reviewed journals, including “Buffalo Soldier, Deserter, Criminal: The Remarkably Complicated Life of Charles Ringo,” in the Ohio Valley Journal, which is his current book project. His first book, “Black Huntington: An Appalachian Story,” published in 2019 by the University of Illinois Press was a finalist for the Appalachian Studies Association Weatherford Award. In 2021 the West Virginia Library Association awarded it the Literary Merit Award. In fall 2022, Black Huntington was chosen as the inaugural book selection for campus-wide reading by Marshall University’s Higher Learning Commission’s Quality Initiative Committee. He was recently appointed as the inaugural Assistant Provost of Inclusive Excellence & Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fellow at Marshall.
David Powers Corwin
Journal Co-Editor
Hailing from the Shenandoah Valley, David Powers Corwin is an associate professor of integrative studies at George Mason University where they teach courses in writing and rhetoric, friendship studies, Appalachian studies, television studies, trauma and gender-based violence, LGBTQ+ Studies, qualitative research methods, and student development. They are also part of the Pop Culture Research Lab at Mason, a co-lead for Leadershape (The Institute), and serve as area chair for pedagogy and popular culture for the Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association. Their past and upcoming scholarship appears in College Composition and Communication, About Campus, Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education; Women's Writing, and Queer Studies in Popular Culture. Their current research and creative work focuses on traumatic experiences in friendships; an ecofeminist critique of Hubert Skidmore's Hawk's Nest; and gendered rhetoric in the Menendez Brothers' case. Learn more at https://integrative.gmu.edu/people/dcorwin.
Mary Kay Thomas
Executive Director
Eliot Parker
Membership Chair
Eliot Parker teaches writing at the University of Mississippi. A native of Charleston, West Virginia, he earned his B.A. in Journalism from Marshall University, an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Eastern Kentucky University, and a Doctorate in English from Murray State University. His research interests include narrative writing and its connections to technical communication and first-year composition. Eliot is also the author of four thriller novels and two collections of short stories. His latest collection of stories, Table for Two, will be released by Pegasus in the Fall of 2024. He has received the PenCraft and Feathered Quill Book Awards for his works as well as the West Virginia Literary Merit Award. He also hosts the podcast program Now, Appalachia, on The Authors on the Air Global Radio Network, which profiles authors and publishers with connections to Appalachia. For more information, visit http://www.eliotparker.com
Beth Nardella
Awards Chair
Beth Nardella is an Associate Professor in the School of Medicine at West Virginia University. She has been teaching discipline-specific science writing for over fifteen years in the Division of Exercise Physiology. Her research focuses on power and resistance dynamics in Appalachia. Her most recent project investigated why people stay in West Virginia. She serves as Director of Global Education and Service Learning for the Department of Human Performance and facilitates trips to communities in Southern West Virginia to foster student understanding of local-global dynamics. For the 2022 ASA Conference in Morgantown, Nardella planned and organized the Maker Space, receiving grants for the DIY printmaking stations, the artist showcase, and the performance space.
Jordan Lovejoy
Appalink Editor /Communications Committee Chair
Jordan Lovejoy is an American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellow, Southern Futures Assistant Director, and Visiting Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She holds a PhD in English with an interdisciplinary specialization in folklore from Ohio State University and studied English, Spanish, and Women's & Gender Studies as an undergraduate at West Virginia University. Her hometown is Pineville, West Virginia. Lovejoy is interested in environmental folklife, engaged ethnography, and literature and artistic expression of Appalachia and the American South. Her work explores literary and vernacular forms of environmental storytelling, flood narratives, strategies for climate change communication, and environmental justice action and advocacy work. She is currently working on a book project that examines what flood stories in Appalachia reveal about how people negotiate belief in relation to climate change, activism, and social and environmental justice. Lovejoy has also worked with several community-focused programs and projects like the Liberal Arts Engagement Hub at the University of Minnesota, the Affective Currents Environmental Humanities Institute at Dartmouth College, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation’s Central Appalachia Living Traditions program, the Ohio Field School project at Ohio State's Center for Folklore Studies, and with the Wyoming East High School theater and Friends of the Earth after-school programs in Wyoming County, West Virginia. She currently works with the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC-Chapel Hill.
Leah Vance Burg
Education Chair
Ann E. Bryant
Office Manager
Ann E. Bryant is office manager for Appalachian Studies Association and assistant-managing editor for the Journal of Appalachian Studies. She began her career as an intern at the West Virginia Legislature, while in undergraduate studies, where she wrote her first published article. She later became a reporter and columnist for her small-town newspaper, The Herald-Dispatch while pursuing a bachelor’s degree. After earning a B.A. in Political Science from Marshall University, she became a legal librarian, and later a paralegal at a small firm and working on high-profile criminal and civil cases. While working in the legal field she began her graduate degree work at Marshall University in Political Theory, earning a M.A. with her thesis, “Where's the beef labeling?: A policy proposal concerning red meat.” Ann loves reading, coffee, and cats. Her favorite book if she had to choose, is probably Pride and Prejudice, and she loves young adult fantasy.
Dee Parker
Scholarship Co-Chair
Justin-Ray Dutton
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Chair
Justin-Ray is a neurodiverse Appalachian who has been involved with ASA and the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee since 2016. Professionally, he teaches in WVU's Center for Women's and Gender Studies and Country Roads Program as he finishes his MSW. His intersectional research interests include sexuality, gender, disability, and expansive access to high adventure recreation. Justin-Ray is excited to continue and expand DE&I's dialogues and actions!
Sarah Craycraft
International Connections Chair
Michelle Roberts
Scholarship Co-Chair