Appalachian Studies Association (ASA)

Job opportunity with Appalshop

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Appalshop has several VISTA positions available through AmeriCorps' Stewards Individual Placement program!
Check out our website at appalshop.org/workwithus to see the whole list of opportunities, learn more, and apply!

Accepting applications until 09/01/2026
Positions last from 09/08/2026 - 09/07/2027 (one year)

Butched Embodiment: Working Bodies and the Appalachian Landscape by Hannah Krull in the new special issue of Journal of Appalachian Studies published by University of Illinois Press the author posits that many rural and Appalachian women engage in a q***r gender embodiment informed by manual labor and working-class experience—working the land in particular—which I call “butched embodiment.” I utilize both polished and raw forms of theorizing, in the way of academic texts from q***r studies scholars and stories from rural America, with an emphasis on Appalachia and the South. Butched gender embodiment is a gender embodiment made “butch” not through personal identification, nor as an indication of one's sexuality, but as an embodiment that is ascribed the quality of “butchness” when viewed through an urban lens. The women in the narratives live in a culture that holds an alternative formulation of gender—one that, I argue, troubles even seemingly expansive models of gender embodiment utilized in q***r studies. Through recognizing butched embodiment, we can better understand the metronormative and neoliberal undercurrent of discourse on q***r experience—discourse that shapes local and global policy and that serves the US Empire. Butched embodiment, as a mode of Appalachian experience, also has potential to serve as an example of living in a community built of strong ties amidst difference—something I believe is a necessary foundation for liberatory movement work.

All 2026 ASA members receive a digital subscription to the spring and fall issues of JAS in 2026!
If you don’t have your 2026 membership renew here:
https://www.appalachianstudies.org/membership

Coming soon from University Press of Kentucky edited by Cicero M. Fain III, Sheena Harris Hayes, Wilburn Hayden Jr., and William H. Turner!!!

Coming Soon: A powerful new collection, BLACK APPALACHIA: RACE, PLACE, AND IDENTITY expands on the groundbreaking BLACKS IN APPALACHIA (1985), offering fresh perspectives on the history, culture, and lived experiences of Black Appalachians.

Edited by Cicero M. Fain III, Sheena Harris Hayes, Wilburn Hayden Jr., and William H. Turner, the volume brings together more than twenty-five scholars and creatives to explore themes of migration, memory, the arts, and identity—highlighting the vital role Black communities have played in shaping Appalachia.

Learn more about this insightful forthcoming book at: https://buff.ly/LohVjbJ