The College of Arts and Sciences will be hosting “Wealth and Poverty in Appalachia” events all week
When Yeong Kim, associate professor of geography at Ohio University, sees former students years after they’ve graduated, she often asks them, “What do you remember about Athens?”
“They usually say OU’s campus and Court Street, and that’s it,” Kim said. “They don’t have much exposure to other parts of Athens, let alone Appalachia.”
This led Kim and fellow geography professor Edna Wangui to create a “Wealth and Poverty in Appalachia” themed week for the College of Arts and Sciences, which will take place April 6 to 10.
The events will include research talks and film screenings that center around themes of inequality and poverty in the areas surrounding Athens and Appalachia as a whole.
On Monday and Tuesday, Melissa Latimer, director of the Advance Center at West Virginia University, will speak about her research in Appalachia which addresses topics such as welfare reform and gender equality.
In addition to other research presentations throughout the week, Kim will show “Morristown: In the Air and Sun,” a documentary film about marginalized minorities in Tennessee.
“I encourage students to see this film to learn about these small manufacturing towns in the Midwest and how they cope with different times and different people,” Kim said.
Alden Library is also hosting a small exhibit of photos, maps and articles depicting Appalachian wealth and poverty on the building’s fourth floor.
Kim said the events are timely because this year marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 1965 Appalachian Regional Development Act, which created the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal agency that aims to improve social conditions in the region.
“It’s about recognizing that there are a lot of people doing research on Appalachia or teaching about Appalachia at OU, but there haven’t been that many events that have brought them together,” Wangui said.
Wangui said their goal is to increase awareness about inequality and to help foster relationships between students and faculty.
“It’s information for students, but also a way for faculty to interact, and for students and faculty to interact in a non-classroom setting,” she said.
Wangui said this is the event’s first year and that they hope to have more weeks like it in the coming years. She said as the university hires more faculty members with research experience in Appalachia, the events would only get better.
“Once you know more about the area, you can do something important here,” Kim said.
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