White Appalachians: Not a “People of the Mountains” [A Rhetorical Analysis of Recent Journal of Appalachian Studies Issues]

Abstract

Previous research has shown that Appalachian Studies as a field, by drawing upon Appalachian Studies scholars and activists such as Harry Caudill, Helen Lewis, and Chris Irwin, misapplied the colonialism model to whites in the region, which resulted in clear remnants of self-Indigenization in the field. I show through a rhetorical analysis of recent (2020–2023) editions of the Journal of Appalachian Studies that these critiques have been left largely unaddressed in the field. In reviewing these issues, a tenet of Appalachian Studies is to employ “Appalachian” as an identity (rather than as solely a regional analytic) that is claimable by whites as distinct from other white settler colonizer identities. Applying the peoplehood matrix, which is a theory of that which imbues Indigenous peoples with Indigeneity and sovereignty, I reveal that white Appalachia often rhetorically presents itself as a colonized Indigenous people—though not necessarily as American Indians.

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