This story is adapted from an online exhibit among the Digital Collections at the Archives of Appalachia.
During the early 1980s, Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander was promoting a plan for increasing the quality of public education in the state. For universities, the package included a “Centers of Excellence” program aimed at raising the state’s economic competitiveness by expanding its research base. Awarded a Center of Excellence to serve the Appalachian region, East Tennessee State University was among the first schools to receive grant funding for the program from the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC).
Established in 1984, the Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services is celebrating 40 years of scholarship and service within its mission “to serve the region through research, education, preservation, and community engagement.” It’s calling mirrors the university’s mission to improve the quality of life in the Appalachian region, making ETSU a natural choice for the only Center of Excellence among the state’s 26 THEC centers focused on the Appalachian region.
By 1986, the Center was named among the top five in the state, and was designated an Accomplished Center of Excellence in 1987. Today, the Center is comprised of four units:
Archives of Appalachia: The Archives collects the written words, images, and sounds that document life in southern Appalachia; stewarding two miles of rare manuscripts, 300,000 photographs, 100,000 audio and moving image recordings, 16,000 books, and over 30 terabytes of digital files. More than 2,000 visitors from ETSU and around the globe utilize its collections each year for scholarly and creative projects.
B. Carroll Reece Museum: The Reece Museum has been a part of campus culture since 1928, and was officially dedicated as a memorial to congressional representative Reece in 1965. The American Alliance of Museums formally accredited the Reece Museum in 1973, making it one of the first museums to hold that distinction in the state of Tennessee. The museum collects, exhibits, and provides educational programming that highlights historic and expressive material culture in Appalachia. Housing more than 22,000 artifacts in its permanent collection and hosting a wide variety of rotating exhibitions, the museum welcomes an average of 10,000 visitors per year.
Institute for Appalachian Music and Culture: Formally established in 2023, the IAMC highlights, preserves, and extends the rich and diverse musical and cultural heritage of the Appalachian mountain region, encouraging innovative research, scholarship, creative activity, and teaching. The IAMC also works to engage ETSU with communities in the region, stimulating the study and appreciation of Appalachian music and culture through fieldwork, public events, conferences, seminars, and other outreach programs.
Regional Resources Institute: This unit is the administrative and outreach
arm of the Center, overseeing all aspects of governance and facilitating partnerships with ETSU departments and community organizations to promote research about and service to the Appalachian region. The RRI manages the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative (formerly called the Appalachian Teaching Project) funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission and the Governor’s School for Tennessee History and Environmental Studies. Over the years, the RRI has provided consultation and support to many communities, nonprofit organizations, museums, and heritage sites across our region, assisting in their work to strengthen our communities and develop sustainable economies. It also publishes the online magazine, Appalachian Places: Stories from the Highlands.
History
When the Center was established, Appalachian Studies was already an area of scholarship that had been growing at the Johnson City campus for at least 15 years. Its origins at ETSU can be traced to the late 1960s, when Helen Matthews Lewis developed an innovative place-based curriculum at the school featuring community-based student research. Known as the “Grandmother of Appalachian Studies,” Lewis’ work at ETSU is widely recognized as producing the first Appalachian Studies classes. From there, other faculty and staff built a strong tradition of regional studies at ETSU that provided the Center’s foundational support for growth.
After Lewis, who left ETSU in 1969, professors in the 1970s — including Thomas Burton, Ambrose Manning, Jack Higgs, Richard Blaustein, Jack Schrader and others — began studying the region using the tools of their various disciplines. Burton and Manning collaborated to create a model for ethnographic fieldwork in the region, collecting folklore, oral history, and ballads while establishing a collection of materials that would later be housed in both the Archives of Appalachia and the Reece Museum. Burton and Schrader collaborated on a series of highly regarded documentary films, including Gandy Dancers and They Shall Take Up Serpents, while Schrader also created an extensive body of fine art that is now housed in the Reece Museum. In 1975, Higgs and Manning published Voices from the Hills, the first comprehensive anthology of Appalachian literature. Throughout the 1970s, Blaustein helped to establish ETSU as a center for the study of both Scots-Irish cultural heritage and for traditional music in the region.
In 1970, ETSU worked with Appalachian State University, Lees-McRae College, and Mars Hill College to found the Appalachian Consortium, which was a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of southern Appalachia. By the late 1970s, Appalachian Studies began to be organized as a distinct interdisciplinary field, building on regional studies concepts that had emerged in the mid-twentieth century. In 1978 ETSU scholars joined others from across the region to form the Appalachian Studies Association (originally called the Appalachian Studies Conference).
In 1978, the same year that the Appalachian Studies Association officially began, ETSU founded the Institute for Appalachian Affairs. The Institute’s mission was to “coordinate a program of research, education, and public service relating to all past, present, and future aspects of life in southern Appalachia.” Linda Scott was the first director of the Institute, serving until 1980, when she was
succeeded by James Reese of the
ETSU English faculty.
Early 1980s expansion
Appalachian Studies at ETSU expanded dramatically in the 1980s. Reese helped to found the Appalachian Writer’s Association, which was active for more than three decades. In 1982 the Institute received a grant from the National
Endowment of the Humanities (NEH)
to begin developing an undergraduate minor in Appalachian Studies. Also in
1982, musician and author Jack Tottle began teaching a series of bluegrass music courses in the ETSU Department of Music, the first such program of its kind in higher education. This innovative program closely collaborated with the Center, and Blaustein frequently taught and performed in the program.
In 1983 Blaustein became the director of the Institute, a year before the state of Tennessee established the THEC Centers of Excellence program.
Blaustein served as the first director of
the Center from 1984-1993. He was
succeeded by four additional directors: Jean Haskell (1993-2002), Ted Olson, as interim director (2002-2003), Roberta Herrin (2004-2016), and Ron Roach (2016-present).
Scholarship, creativity
From the beginning, as part of its research and education mission, the Center and its predecessors supported a broad range of scholarly and creative projects such as print
and online publications, books, audio and film recordings, and visual art exhibitions.
Encyclopedia of Appalachia — In 2006, the Center's staff saw the culmination of more than 10 years of work with the publication of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia (edited by Haskell and Rudy Abramson). Supported by more than $400,000 in grant funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Appalachian Regional Commission, and others, the Encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference tool, including over 2,000 entries spread across 30 topical sections. The Encyclopedia is used by a range
of audiences, including scholars, educators,
policymakers, and students, and is well-received for its accuracy,
comprehensiveness, and broad scope. In 2023, faculty and staff began the process of revising the Encyclopedia and transforming it into an open-access, online resource. Funding from the NEH and the ARC has enabled substantial progress on the project and allowed it to stay on track for completion in the late 2020s.
Appalachian Places, Now & Then — From 1984 until 2016 Center faculty and staff published the award-winning magazine Now & Then: The Appalachian Magazine, which featured articles, essays, poems, photographs, and other features by leading scholars and writers throughout the region. The magazine’s editors included Fred Waage (1984-1986), Pat Arnow (1986-1994), Jane H. Woodside (1995-2004), Norma R. Wilson (2005), Fred Sauceman (2006-2015), and Randy Sanders (2016). In 2021, the magazine relaunched as the online publication Appalachian Places, edited by Assistant Center Director Rebecca Adkins Fletcher, Ron Roach, and Mark Rutledge, increasing the publication’s reach and enabling the incorporation of multimedia content.
Books and recordings — For more than two decades the Center was an active partner in the Appalachian Consortium Press, which published over forty books and recordings about southern and central Appalachia. In
addition, the Center has produced an impressive list of books, albums, periodicals, and documentary films under its own imprint. Some of its supported books include Some Ballad Folks, by Thomas Burton; A Southern Appalachian Reader, edited by Nellie McNeil and Joyce Squibb; A Day Before Yesterday: Appalachia, by Kenneth Murray; and The Last Empire Builder: A Life of George L. Carter, by Ray Stahl and Ned Irwin. In addition, faculty and staff of the Center and of the Department of Appalachian Studies have published or created many articles, books, recordings, and other projects over the years, making outstanding contributions to their fields.
Audio and film — The Center released audio recordings including Here and Now, by David Grindstaff; The Gospel Truth, by the Margaret Venable Family and Friends; A Carrying Stream, by the ETSU Celtic Band; Appalachian Shamisan, by The Last Frontier featuring Takeharu Kunimoto; and East Tennessee State University Bluegrass Band. The Center also supported documentary films such as Ray Hicks and Other Beech Mountain Folks; Appalachia: A Visual Concert, featuring photographs by Edward Schell and music by Kenton Coe, and Ramps and Ruritans: Tales of the Revered and Reeking Leek of Flag Pond, Tennessee by Fred Sauceman, one in a series of films on regional foodways.
Visual art — Since 1984 the Center has supported the work of Appalachian artists such as Sammie L. Nicely, Margaret Gregg, Bill Capshaw, and Andrew Moore that include media such as ceramics, textiles, paintings, sculpture, and other modes of creating visual art. The Reece Museum and the Center have commissioned original works of art, and many curators have collaborated with museum staff to produce award-winning exhibitions highlighting the creativity of Appalachians.
Fellowships, grants
Since its founding, the Center has remained committed to supporting research, education, preservation, interpretation, and community engagement. A significant expression of that commitment has been through the thousands of dollars the Center has awarded individual scholars to support a range of scholarly and creative projects. One of the Center's first initiatives was to establish a robust grant program in 1984 that provided financial support to more than a dozen projects in each of its first two years. The initial granting program remained active for more than 15 years, supporting well over 100 scholarly and creative projects that contributed accurate data and nuanced and reliable representations of the region. It was augmented by additional grant programs such as a student scholarship, funded by the Reece Museum, that has supported Art & Design and Museum Studies students since the 1980s.
Project support through the Center continues today. The Margaret Huffman Endowment Grant, active since 2019, has funded projects in public health, nursing, religious studies, environmental studies, veterans support, visual arts, music history, regional cartography, and more. The Institute for Appalachian Music and Culture has assisted in a range of musical research projects, including the String Band Summit, a gathering of string band scholars and performers first held in 2022.
Academic Programs
Since its founding, the Center’s academic offerings have been a valuable part of its contributions to the campus. In addition to collaborating on bluegrass courses in the 1980s, Center faculty and staff played key roles in establishing the Appalachian-Scottish and Irish Studies Program in 1988. Throughout the 1990s
and 2000s those offerings expanded, with the Center formally administering the vernacular music program beginning in 1999 and adding new minors in Environmental Studies and Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies in the 2000s. In 2010 the minor expanded into a full undergraduate major in Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies (now Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies) making ETSU the first university to offer such a degree. This renowned program continues to be the largest such program in the world, and has been described as the “gold standard of collegiate bluegrass programs” (Raleigh News and Observer). Since 2013, students, faculty, and alumni from the program have been nominated for more than 360 music awards, winning more than 170, including six Grammys and 54 International Bluegrass Music Association awards.
This academic growth made it clear that the Center would benefit from the existence of a full academic department, an aspiration that was realized in 2008 with the creation of the Department of Appalachian Studies, which made ETSU the only university to offer a full academic department dedicated to the study and support of the region.
As the academic programs have grown and the Department of Appalachian Studies has developed into a vibrant part of the campus learning community, the synergy between the Department and the Center has remained strong. Today the Department’s more-than 30 full-time and adjunct faculty experts serve hundreds of ETSU students enrolled in departmental courses each semester that support one undergraduate major, seven minors, a master’s degree, and two graduate certificate programs. More than 200 students are majoring or minoring in the Department’s wide range of academic offerings. The Center has remained a key partner in supporting the Department’s robust educational offerings, ensuring that opportunities for studying Appalachia in all its depth and complexity remain a core part of the educational experience at ETSU.
Future opportunities
The Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services began as an effort to provide reliable data and representations of the region
while improving the quality of life for its residents. What started as an aspiration among ETSU faculty and staff to become a focal point for high-quality regional research and creative activity has, over the past 40 years, developed into a respected research center valued for generating accurate and nuanced information about southern and central Appalachia. With decades of investment through grant programs, publications, educational initiatives, and public events, the Center exemplifies how dedication, passion, and academic rigor can be leveraged to benefit a region.
Blaustein, who died in 2020, Haskell, and Herrin were long-serving Center directors who oversaw several foundational steps in establishing the Center’s role, mission, and initiatives. Key items on that list include the Center’s involvement in administering and expanding the Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music program; the establishment of the Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative; and producing the print Encyclopedia of Appalachia. During separate interviews with Appalachian Places for this article, Haskell and Herrin had much to say about those accomplishments having been products of lengthy and collaborative work involving many dedicated faculty and staff members. Asked about the Center’s most important contribution during its four decades of existence, Haskell and Herrin each emphasized its role in helping to effect positive changes in public perceptions of the Appalachian region.
“There are difficulties still,” Haskell said, “and people who want to stereotype. But much less so than in the past. People now embrace their Appalachian heritage and identity. …And that has happened because of the hard work of a lot of people in Appalachian Studies for all of these years.”
Reflecting on her term as director of the Center, Herrin touched on the topic of expanding the concept of what it means to be Appalachian. “There is no such thing as a monolithic region,” she said. “I just keep going back to that word authenticity, and being real about the region. …I guess if there was anything that I aspired to for the Center it was to broaden the view. And for example, the issue of (Now & Then magazine) that we did on urbanity in Appalachia — the word we used was ‘cosmopolitan’ — to talk about that part of the region because most people focus strictly on the poverty.”
Despite measurable and substantial successes, the need for well-researched information about Appalachia remains great. The region faces environmental threats from mountaintop removal coal mining, industrial pollution, and loss of wilderness, while also continuing to lag behind the rest of the nation on socioeconomic indicators in such areas as poverty, educational attainment, broadband access, substance use disorders, and public health. Additionally, Appalachia continues to be reduced to stereotypes that obscure its vibrant, diverse, and nuanced histories and cultures.
“More and more people today are recognizing what we have long known, that the Appalachian Mountain Region is a special place with incredibly rich history, culture, and natural resources,” current Center Director Ron Roach said. “Although we have made great progress over the past decades, there is still a lot of work to be done to overcome the region’s continuing challenges and to continue building a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren. So when I look back over the changes that have taken place over four decades, I am proud of the good work our Center has accomplished, but also convinced that its work will be needed into the future. Today, our Center remains committed to its mission to serve this region and we are more engaged than ever in partnering with local communities to find the solutions that we need.”
The Center’s achievements have demonstrated the value of sustained scholarly and creative investments in the region. Today, it stands as a trusted partner in regional studies and broader conversations, providing accurate information and thoughtful depictions that bring greater understanding about the region to a national audience. The Center’s expertise uniquely positions it to identify future needs and utilize available resources to address those needs.
As Appalachia faces a future of both challenges and opportunities, the Center is poised to lead efforts that contribute to regional economic development and foster civility and understanding, paving the way for lasting, positive change.
Comments