An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Ashli Stokes (Fulbright Distinguished Scholar 2021; University of North Carolina Charlotte):
Rhetorics of Resilience: Communication, Foodways, and the Meaning of Appalachian Food
Abstract:
Appalachia has long served as America’s scapegoat, lampooned as a symbol of Southern poverty and low educational levels and serving as the banjo playing, barefoot, overall-wearing, “trash food”-eating “Other” America. This presentation draws from a manuscript in progress that challenges these stereotypes through a rhetorical study of foodways. Rhetorically analyzing Appalachian foods provides a more nuanced understanding of contemporary Appalachia, able to look closer at how discussions about the region’s food sometimes perpetuate, as well as counter, stereotypes that an entire region is deficient. We first look at how scholars from a variety of disciplines use food as a lens to investigate regions and identities, outlining the contributions of the rhetorical approach. Appalachia’s long history of serving as a problematic cultural entity is then contextualized, including the legacy of the myths of Scots-Irish (Ulster Scots) settlement in privileging whiteness and masculinity. Drawing from examples generated through rhetorical fieldwork, the presentation then highlights how Appalachians use food to shape their identities and cultures while also tracing the continued circulation of certain perceptions. Research findings illustrate how the region is built on rhetorics of resilience that challenge, yet reify, some of the white narrative through three significant topics: the Scots-Irish frontier myth and its resistance to change, ingenuity amidst challenge, and sustained, but overlooked, diversity. Within this realm of resilience, we find a more complete story of Southern Appalachia, with its strengths and flaws on full display. Ultimately, using food to better understand the myths and realities of historical and contemporary Appalachian identities has implications for regionalism, nationalism, and globalism and is in line with the current direction of rhetorical scholarship that attends more closely to the structures that support whiteness.
This talk is based on work in progress for Rhetorics of Resilience: Interrogating Food and Identity in the Blue Ridge Mountains (with Dr. Wendy Atkins-Sayre; University of South Carolina Press, 2022).
Biography:
Dr Ashli Quesinberry Stokes (PhD, University of Georgia) is a Professor of Communication Studies and former Director of the Center for the Study of the New South at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She will begin the Fulbright Scotland Visiting Professorship at the University of Edinburgh in January 2021. Stokes’ research about communicating identity in the Southern food movement has been described as “a call to action.” She recently edited City Places, Country Spaces: Rhetorical Explorations of the Urban/Rural Divide (Peter Lang), and co-authored Consuming Identity: The Role of Food in Redefining the South with Wendy Atkins-Sayre (University of Mississippi Press). Her research exploring intersections between identity, activism, and regions has been featured in leading academic outlets such as the Southern Communication Journal, Public Relations Inquiry, Journal of Public Interest Communications, and Journal of Public Relations Research and includes four books, while she also contributes to local and national media, such as the Smithsonian/Zocalo Public Square, Academic Minute, NPR, and The Counter. Recipient of the National Communication Association Public Relations Division PRIDE Award for public relations pedagogy and the Janice Hocker Rushing Early Career Research Award from the Southern States Communication Association, Stokes has also received external funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council and other agencies to support her research. Stokes teaches courses on Southern foodways, rhetoric, and public advocacy.
Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81322391722
Passcode: Vr8f3ew2