Date of Award

Summer 2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Department

Geography

First Advisor

David Kneas

Abstract

Based on a summer of ethnographic research in a subsection of Appalachian Ohio colloquially referred to as “The Valley,” this research challenges three narratives of this place that formulate a harmful Appalachian imaginary. The first narrative of industrycontrolled coal heritage is complicated by the way local people negotiate control over their own stories of coal and its existence outside of industry domain. The second narrative characterizes this as a space of extraction which is in tension with different social relations to varying types of energy – especially the discontinuity of the coal to fracking shift. The third narrative centers of the national consciousness’ homogenizing of Appalachians as the scapegoat for the success of “Make America Great Again” politics due to the backwardness and unsophisticated nature of this place, which is contrary to the very intricate process of political identity formation and its operations at a variety of scales. By acknowledging the problematic place and identity (re)productive work of these broad generalizations and restoring agency to these populations over their own stories, we begin to repair the harms inflicted on the region and take care in securing its future.

Rights

© 2025, Jenna Lynn Haver

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