From the Editor

Abstract

The Fall 2022 issue of the Journal of Appalachian Studies brings together a series of articles investigating historical and contemporary inequalities in Appalachia. We open with a historical account of how specific forms of anti-Blackness through industrialization and de-industrialization have influenced the contemporary impression of Appalachia as a primarily white space. Drawing on the scholarly traditions of Black geographies and Black Studies, Gabe Schwartzman traces the impact of residential and labor segregation, unequal exposures to environmental hazards, and the pull of more promising places on the construction of Appalachia as a white space, and the discounting of Black space-making in dominant accounts of the region.Next, Meike Schleiff and David Peters explore the historical trajectories of health policy and the community health workers who have in various iterations been deployed as key personnel in public health initiatives in Appalachia and other rural spaces. Due to a lack of access to physicians in rural areas, community health workers have been needed to fill the gap and address the complex determinants of ill health in rural and low-income communities. This article concentrates on lessons that can be gleaned from federally led programs, ranging from the New Deal era to the Affordable Care Act, to improve policy and address persistent health inequalities in rural spaces.Julia M. Miller, Julie N. Zimmerman, Kathryn Engle, and Cameron McAlister conduct a comparative study of rural and urban food prices in Appalachia and how changes over an eleven-year period have impacted people's access to food. Contrary to the popular idea that prices are lower in rural areas, they find that food prices in selected rural Appalachian counties have risen more rapidly than they have in selected urban counties. Economic distress, de-industrialization, and population loss are factors to consider in food policy that specifically meets the complex needs of rural communities.The last article, by Marjorie Darrah, Kimberly Cowley, Christopher Wheatley, Leah McJilton, and Roxann Humbert, evaluates the growth and impact of a National Science Foundation funded project, the First2 Network, in its efforts to encourage persistence in STEM fields in West Virginia higher education. The authors note that although the number of STEM majors in West Virginia has increased, the number actually graduating with a degree or certificate has remained flat. The network has a goal of increasing the number of students who choose a STEM major, and then providing them with the support they need to persist and graduate.The articles are followed by a research note by Julie Tritz, Daniel Eades, Doug Arbogast, Allison Tomlinson, and Lorrie Wright. Their note explores the impact of quilt trails—a form of cultural heritage tourism—on the communities where they are located. Quilt trails consist of barns or outbuildings adorned with square quilts of various traditional patterns that decorate the building and honor a traditional Appalachian art form. The authors present an exploratory qualitative study of how this form of heritage tourism has impacted participating farmers in West Virginia.This issue of JAS also includes a wide range of book and media reviews. Carson E. Benn reviews Lost in Transition: Removing, Resettling, and Renewing Appalachia, edited by Aaron D. Purcell; Ladetra Morgan reviews an exhibit honoring the life and work of the late bell hooks; Crystal Good reviews the film Homegrown Foodways in West Virginia: Foraging and Relations with Jonathan Hall, filmed and produced by Mike Costello and Amy Dawson for the American Folklife Center, with support from the West Virginia Folklife Program; Mai Perkins reviews a performance by Sparky and Rhonda Rucker; Amanda Page and Cassie Rosita Patterson review the multi-media site BLACK BY GOD | The West Virginian; Yair Golan reviews Episode 3 of the Smoky Mountain Air podcast mini-series Sepia Tones: Exploring Black Appalachian Music; and Roy Andrade reviews the complete recorded works of the musician Blind Alfred Reed.Finally, I would like to thank everyone involved in the work of producing this issue of JAS: the University of Illinois Press staff; the editorial board of the Journal of Appalachian Studies; the JAS production team: Christopher L. Leadingham, Mary K. Thomas, Ann E. Bryant, Carson E. Benn; and our new media review editor, Matthew Sparks; all the reviewers who generously shared their time and labor with us; and the entire Appalachian studies community.