A Three Year Mission

“Something, Something. Profound words.” -Abraham Lincoln (Probably)

These field notes are my attempt to offer a daily (okay more like weekly (okay much more like sporadically)) study of Southern Appalachia. I am originally from the Ohio River Valley (Midwest/North Appalachia) and am interested in both the similarities and differences I find from where I grew up, and where I work now (NE Alabama).

I plan for these to be occasionally serious, but always comical, and that duality will help me appreciate the idiosyncrasies and downright infuriating tendencies that are rural American life.

I have chosen 3 years for my mission because in that time I will have undergone the tenure process at Jacksonville State University. I want to discuss and offer my thoughts on what it means to be an academic in this period. These will always be comical, rarely ever serious, in case a dean, or a provost, or an assistant dean, or an assistant dean provost, should stumble upon this page and start reading my reports.

I believe in academic freedom, but I have no interest in angering REDACTED COMMENTS FOR SAFTEY OF RESEARCHER.

But the biggest focus I want to make for these field notes is an ongoing log that details my learning about Southern Appalachia specifically, and the American South more generally. As JSU’s new public historian I consider it a privilege and an honor to be entrusted with these communities’ history.

Here we go…

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