By Ophelia Thornton
As East Tennessee State University’s Center for Appalachian Studies and Services celebrates its 40th year, one of its former directors has published a collection of essays written during her leadership. Appalachian Homilies, by Dr. Roberta Herrin, contains 19 insightful essays that remain relevant today.
During a recent interview with Appalachian Places, Herrin said one of the goals behind republishing the selections from her work is to highlight the contributions of Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine. The print forerunner to Appalachian Places, Now & Then was published by the center for more than three decades. “I wanted to share those essays to bring attention to the magazine and its long history,” Herrin said. “And the people who fought for it all those years.”
Herrin served as the center director from 2004 to 2016. She was the first director to be raised in the region, something that inspired her to “broaden the view” of Appalachia during her leadership.
The center is composed of the Carroll Reece Museum, the Regional Resources Institute, the Archives of Appalachia, and the Institute for Appalachian Music and Culture, all on ETSU’s campus. Herrin is also an alumna of the university, where she completed her B.S. and M.A. degrees. She earned a PhD at the University of Tennessee and returned to ETSU to teach. Before becoming center director, she was a professor of English for nearly three decades.
While involved with Now & Then as center director, Herrin was exposed to people and perspectives that reinforced her belief that Appalachia is anything but a monolith. In the preface of Appalachian Homilies, she dedicates the book to the staff of Now & Then. “I think the essays are still relevant because they covered such a variety of topics,” she said. “And they helped get at that issue of authenticity. That magazine was also important because it gave Appalachian writers a voice, a place for their work.”
Appalachian Homilies contains reflections on her time as director, ideas about Appalachia’s future, and stories of people in the region that inspire her. This includes articles such as “Affirming Urbanity in Appalachia” and “The Mountain Farmer and Milton.” Herrin said the essays reflect her efforts to show Appalachia’s nuances. “I tried to encourage people to think about the region in a different way,” she said. “Rather than talking about quilts and hound dogs, I wanted to focus on the aspects of the region that people don't normally think about.”
Herrin is from Roan Mountain, Tennessee, about 25 miles from ETSU at the North Carolina border. She often stays at her family’s old property there, which she now owns.
“I think growing up in the region also gave me a good understanding of the people in the region. You really cannot judge people by appearances and assumptions. You have to know them and meet them, and it helped me to have lived with them,” Herrin said. “And I still live with them. They're my neighbors. And what an outsider might see, I don't really see. A judgment that an outsider might make would never occur to me because I know the people personally.”
Portions of the Roan Mountain community near the Doe River were devastated during recent flooding from Hurricane Helene. During her interview, Herrin mentioned that her family’s property could be without power for months. “Having gone through this flood, I was thinking a lot about what a (community outreach) opportunity that would be for students,” she said.
Herrin has taught classes in Appalachian children’s literature and published a bibliography in 2009 that contained Appalachian children’s stories ranging from the 18th century to the present day. While serving as director, Herrin helped to complete the Encyclopedia of Appalachia, published in 2006. The 2,000-page volume with more than 2,000 articles about the history and culture of the Appalachian region is in the initial stages of being updated and digitized – a project funded by a $50,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
One of Herrin’s proudest accomplishments as director was developing the curriculum for what are now the Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies and Appalachian Studies programs at ETSU. She looks back fondly on how the faculty at the center worked together to organize the programs. “We had an administration that supported us without fail. We didn't have to fight the administration,” she said. “I think the center continues to promote scholarship and an understanding of the region through the curriculum.”
“The Tending To,” the first essay featured in Appalachian Homilies, is one part a love letter to the center, and another part an inventory of what it means to be a part of an institution that strives to serve the people in its periphery. In the essay, she explains that in planning for the future as director, the center chooses the term “commitments” over “values” because “commitments are forward-looking.” Since retiring, Herrin has disconnected some from the center. “I've been living up on the mountain growing blueberries and having my cats with me,” Herrin said, laughing. But despite her time away from her position, she is excited about the future of the center and the opportunities it has gained in the near decade since she was director. “I know that Dr. (Ron) Roach (the current director) is working on a grant (project) to put the encyclopedia online. That's what I see as a forward-thinking thing, (like) taking advantage of new technology and putting the magazine online, reaching a much wider audience with less expense.”
However, in Appalachian Homilies, Herrin shares that one cannot only look toward the future to gain insight on the region. In “Appalachia 2061: Epiphanies and Revelations,” the final essay of the collection, she advises readers to “live thoughtfully and spiritually in the present moment.” She provides a list of ways to sustain a new Appalachia, not rooted in the past, but one that supports the people of its present.
“I think looking at the past through a current lens — absorbing the past, valuing it, taking what's good from it and making that applicable to current life — you do that through curriculum, and you do that through community outreach,” she said. “The communities are interested in the past. They're interested in the connection with their families and their family histories. The needs of the region haven't changed a whole lot. And if this storm proved anything, it is that.”
Ophelia Thornton is a student in the Master’s in Appalachian Studies program at East Tennessee State University, and a staff member for Appalachian Places. She holds a masters degree in Secondary English Education and has taught history in Tennessee public schools.
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