JOHNSON CITY (Posted Dec. 18, 2012) – East Tennessee State University faculty member Dr. Theresa Lloyd has been designated as an Appalachian Teaching Fellow for the 2012-13 academic year by the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) for her work in the Appalachian Teaching Project (ATP) at ETSU.

Lloyd is a professor in the departments of Literature and Language and Appalachian Studies at ETSU.

Led by the Consortium of Appalachian Centers and Institutes, the ATP offers students a unique opportunity to conduct active, community-based research on their campuses. They are invited to present their findings to an audience of their peers and ARC administrators in Arlington, Va., every December.

The first Appalachian Teaching Project was held in the fall of 2001 and emerged from a number of meetings of members of the Consortium of Appalachian Centers with the ARC staff. These meetings resulted in a grant that funded collaboration among faculty, students and communities. ETSU’s Center for Appalachian Studies and Services (CASS) administers the ARC grant for the ATP, which includes 15 institutions representing 11 of the 13 ARC states.

Lloyd oversaw ETSU’s ATP students as they continued a multi-year project being done by the Department of Appalachian Studies in Unicoi County, with the central focus of their 2012 ATP course being to document the county’s agricultural history. The specific project goals were to help Unicoi County preserve its farming heritage and promote sustainable economic development. By bolstering a sustainable economy, Unicoi County hopes to increase job opportunities and per capita income and be better prepared to compete in the global economy.

ATP students interviewed people who had been involved in farming in Unicoi County, including retired farmers, agricultural agents, people who grew up on farms, and others. Those interviews will be the basis for an exhibition on the history of Unicoi County farming from 1945 to the present, which will be held at ETSU’s Reece Museum in Spring 2014.

Created by the U.S. Congress, the ARC is a partnership between the federal government and the governors of the 13 Appalachian states designed to improve economic opportunities throughout the region.

For more information on the ATP, visit www.etsu.edu/cass/projects. To learn more about the ARC, visit www.arc.gov.