RESPONSE Community and Commitment in Appalachian Studies Jean Haskell Speer First, let me say how honored I am to have been invited to be part of this symposium for Loyal Jones and to be part ofthe distinguished panel on this program. When I first came into the Appalachian Studies family in a formal way about fifteen years ago, these people, Loyal Jones, John Stephenson, Dick Drake, Helen Lewis, and Ron Eller, were already important figures to me for their leadership and scholarship in Appalachian Studies. At that time, I had hope, but no real thought, that I would be in their company in this way. Back then, I felt like a young whipper-snapper in Appalachian Studies; now I feel like the old guard. It is a humbling and gratifying experience. In thinking about these remarks, I did what any self-respecting Appalachian Studies person does—I looked to the past to provide context for where we are now and where we may hope to go. I looked back to the 1977 issue of the Appalachian Journal, which was "a guide to Appalachian Studies."1 The issue featured an overview of the field, explored the contributions of various disciplines to this interdisciplinary study, and provided lists of resources, folks involved in Appalachian Studies work, and suggestions for research. It was a fascinating backward look. Most of the people who wrote for that issue and were listed in the appendices are in this room today or still involved in Appalachian Studies, some sixteen years later. That's not bad for a field of study some see as marginalized, even esoteric, and to some minds, not intellectually rigorous. A buzzword these days is "sustainable" community, and we in Appalachian studies have achieved it. The Jean Haskell Speer is director of the Centerfor Appalachian Studies and Services at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. 22 definition of sustainable includes not only having what is necessary, but that which enriches the spirits, causes us to endure. What has sustained us in Appalachian Studies, enriched us, caused us to endure? And how does that heritage guide us into the future? I think for those of us in academe, Appalachian Studies has given us professorship with something worth professing and scholarship that can make a real difference. In his essay in that 1977 issue of the Appalachian Journal, Steve Fisher argued that Appalachian Studies programs should cultivate a positive Appalachian self-image and give students tools in critical thinking; in short, provide an education that "liberates" Appalachian students.2 I think we all know from our own students, from hearing students, graduate students, and youth participants in the Appalachian Studies Association meetings, and from our discussions with one another that this kind of education is going on in classrooms and beyond classroom walls all over the region. And it liberates the thinking not only of students from Appalachia, but those from outside the region, some of our own colleagues, and members of our communities. I remember one student who said she listened to professors often make denigrating remarks about the region in classes, but never spoke up until she had taken some Appalachian Studies classes; one incident made it all the way to the dean's office and she never relented. In another episode, I received a draft report from a self-study committee (at Virginia Tech, where I was at the time) that suggested that Virginia Tech had brought cultural life to southwest Virginia. I suggested to the committee that perhaps they should consider that the university was located in one of the richest cultural areas of the country and had added new dimensions of culture to the area, but certainly had not come in and filled some sort of cultural void. The committee agreed they had not examined their cultural assumptions carefully enough, and the language was changed. Recently, I spoke to the nursing faculty at East Tennessee State University about working with students from the region; this came at their request and out of their sincere interest to understand and deal sensitively with their students' cultural backgrounds. So, I do believe the presence of Appalachian Studies is being felt on campuses...