RADFORD – Twenty-two Radford University faculty, staff and students participated in the recent Appalachian Studies Association Conference at Marshall University in Huntington, W. Va. RU’s Appalachian Regional Studies Center was a sponsor of the conference.

Participants were as follows:

• Grace Toney Edwards, ARSC director, Best Fiction and Poetry Book of 2007 Selection Committee Member; convener and presenter - “Tracking Contemporary Appalachian Culture Back to Scottish Roots;” roundtable discussion member for Appalachian Center Directors;

• Faculty member Ricky Cox, presenter - “Water Over the Dam: Water-Powered Grist Mills in Floyd County, Virginia, 1800-2000;”

•Faculty member Gene Hyde, chair, ASA e-Appalachian Award Committee; and convener - “Crossing Borders: The Road Ahead in Ozark Studies;”

•Faculty member Melinda Bollar Wagner and undergraduate students Ashley Herwald, Brittony Fitzgerald, Patricia Jacobs, and Jeffrey Wood,  presenters - “Floyd County, Virginia Place-Based Education: Exploring World War II;”

•RU faculty Mary LaLone, presenter  - “Appalachian Family Farming and the 21st Century: Traditional Survival Strategies, Adaptation and Accommodations;”

•RU staff member Keith Nunn, presenter - “Digitizing Appalachian Music: Revisiting and Saving Early Appalachian Radio Shows through Digitization;”

•Staff member and alumna Kathy Murphy, presenter - “Tracking Contemporary Appalachian Culture Back to Scottish Roots;"

•Independent scholar and graduate student Donia Eley, presenter - “Tracking Contemporary Appalachian Culture Back to Scottish Roots;”

• Graduate student Julie Alexander and staff member Kerri Huff, presenters - “La Riviere, Historic Preservation Project, Radford, Virginia: Preserving the Past to Look to the Future;”

•Graduate student Julie Alexander, alumna Donna Ogle, and faculty member Dana Cochran, presenters - “Are We Losing Literature in America? Finding Appalachian, Ourselves and the Nation;”

•Graduate student Shai Cullop, presenter  - “Paving the Way for a New Generation through Diane Gilliam Fisher’s Kettle Bottom;”

•Undergraduate students  Katelyn Gimbel, Betsy DiSalvo, Aysha Bodenhamer and faculty member JoAnn Asbury, presenters - “Illuminating Appalachian Arts and Studies in the Schools: Many Roads, One Appalachia;”

•Undergraduate student Patricia Jacobs, presenter - “A Modern Appalachian Ghost Tale.”