2025 Recipients |
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Dr. Scott Honeycutt, an Associate Professor in the Department of Literature and Language, will use his grant to develop two "Rambler's Maps" focused on the North Fork and the South Fork of the New River. Funding will support site visits to the New River as well as summer research in the Archives to work with the D.R. Beeson, Sr. Papers, the James H. Quillen Papers, and several monographs. The resulting original maps will be deposited in the Archives of Appalachia. |
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Stacey Horton, a graduate student in the Department of Appalachian Studies, will continue to work with the Anthony P. Cavender Folk Medicine Collection, the Joseph Sargent Hall Collection, the Thomas G. Burton-Ambrose N. Manning Collection, and others to explore historic practices around folk medicine in Appalachia. Funding will support ongoing oral history work that will provide new insight into the use of food as medicine, foodways, herbalism, and folk medicine more broadly. |
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Dr. Kristen Montgomery, an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing, will conduct research with the Tennesseans Against Chemical Hazards (TEACH) Records, the East Tennessee Light and Power Company Records, and the Southern Empowerment Project Records, among others. She will explore women's concerns from the past around the relationship between environmental issues and reproductive health, and compare those with current-day perspectives. Funding will support research in the Archives and the presentation of findings at a national conference in 2026. |
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Dr. Ted Olson, a Professor in the Department of Appalachian Studies, will utilize materials from the Joseph Sargent Hall Collection to support his research into the banjo player Carroll Best. Olson will select previously unreleased recordings of Best and conduct original research for extensive liner notes for a release on Patuxent Music, scheduled for November 2025. |
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Annalee Tull, an instructor in the Department of Theatre and Dance, will work with the Old Time Dance Conference Collection and the Appalachian-Scottish and Irish Studies Collection to inform her dissertation research into percussive dance traditions in Appalachia. Funding will support research in the Archives and the presentation of her work at a national conference in 2026. |
2024 Recipients |
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Stacey Horton, a graduate student in the Department of Appalachian Studies, will work with the Anthony P. Cavender Folk Medicine Collection, the Joseph Sargent Hall Collection, the Thomas G. Burton-Ambrose N. Manning Collection, and others to explore historic practices around folk medicine in Appalachia. This project will provide new insight into the use of food as medicine, foodways, herbalism, and folk medicine more broadly. |
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Alistair McCubbin, an undergraduate in the Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Roots Music Studies Program, will work with the Leon McIntyre Collection, the Lewis Deneumoustier Collection, the Earl R. Yates Collection, and others to inform an oral history project documenting the significance of bluegrass music in the United Kingdom. This project will help to provide a nuanced understanding of international perceptions and attitudes towards the cultural products of the Appalachian region. |
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Dr. Kristen Montgomery, an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing, will conduct research with the Joseph Sargent Hall Collection, the Robert M. Shank Collection, and the Hiltons Folk Medicine Survey Collection, among others. She will explore the various remedies and recipes that midwives used to care for women and families, building upon her successful Huffman-funded project from 2023. |
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Edwin Swatsell, a graduate student in the Department of Appalachian Studies, will work with the Beverly Burbage Papers, the Frederick S. Heiskell Papers, the William L. Jenkins Collection, and others to provide new insight into the legacy of Harmon pottery in Greene County, Tennessee. One expression of this research will be an exhibit in ETSU’s Reece Museum in 2024-2025. |
2023 Recipients |
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Dr. Jennifer Adler, an Assistant Professor in the Department of History, will conduct original research with the audio recordings and print materials in the Appalachian Preaching Mission Records. Adler will develop a comprehensive listing of sermon themes and scripture references as well as the denominational identity, gender, and race of each featured speaker in order to inform new scholarship on the history of preaching missions and on ecumenical cooperation in central Appalachia in the mid-20th century. |
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Jeremy Dubhros, a graduate student in the Departments of Sociology and Appalachian Studies, will use the grant to conduct oral history interviews with veterans in east Tennessee, focusing on their lived experiences in the region. Dubhros will create searchable transcripts of the content, which will join with the audio recordings to form a new collection at the Archives of Appalachia. |
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Dr. Rebecca Fletcher, an Associate Professor in the Department of Appalachian Studies, will work with a range of collections to select items for inclusion in the exhibit "Appalachia and Yemen: Agriculture and Craft in Comparative Adaptations," to be displayed at ETSU's Reece Museum in late 2024. The exhibit will showcase the complexity of mountain life and adaptation in ways that belie the stereotypes of simplicity and emphasize the ingenuity of farming and material cultural adaptations in difficult landscapes. |
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Dr. Sean Fox, a Lecturer in the Department of Health Sciences, will work with a variety of folk medicine collections to provide historical perspective for a project to create a digital map of the Appalachian microbiome. This work will provide greater understanding of the microbial populations found in Appalachia, which is the most bio-diverse area in North America, and how they affect both the environmental health and population health of this region. |
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Dr. Kristen Montgomery, an Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing, will conduct research with the Charles Gunter Oral History Collection and the Thomas G. Burton-Ambrose N. Manning Collection, among others. This research will result in new scholarship on the rich history of midwives in rural Appalachia, including nurse-midwives, non-nurse midwives, lay midwives, and "granny" midwives. |
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Rebecca Tolley, a Professor in the Sherrod Library, will select images from the Jeanne M. Rasmussen Papers, the Jack Schrader Photographs and Films, and the Appalachian Farm Photographs, among others. Tolley will use these images to influence original artwork that will appear in a set of 49 oracle cards that will link the material world of objects with the abstract world of symbols, signs, and beliefs, helping to create a bridge for understanding between Appalachian culture and other diverse cultures. |
2022 Recipients |
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Danielle Byington, an instructor in the Department of Literature and Language, will conduct original research with the Christine Burleson Papers, which document Burleson's work as a poet and Shakespearean scholar. Byington will use this research as inspiration for a series of paintings that incorporate - and respond to - Burleson's writing. The paintings will be exhibited at local museums and will also be incorporated into Byington's teaching at ETSU. |
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Jeremy Dubhros, a graduate student in the Departments of Sociology and Appalachian Studies, will use the grant to support work digitizing a collection of over 100 letters written by Johnson City residents John and Lelia Sherfey between 1919-1921. The digital files will be donated to the Archives of Appalachia and made available online to the public. |
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Dr. Matthew Holtmeier, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Literature and Language, will use his grant to create several digital exhibits that draw upon georeferencing technology to provide new scholarly entries into various Appalachian films. |
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Dr. Scott Honeycutt, an Associate Professor in the Department of Literature and Language, will use the James A. Goforth Collection, the Mildred S. Kozsuch Papers, and several other collections to inform his research into the Appalachian author and artist William Nealy. This research will result in an exhibit at ETSU's Reece Museum in spring 2023. |
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Dr. John Rankin, an Associate Professor in the Department of History, will draw upon the Frank B. Williams, Jr. Papers and the Office of the President Records: Sidney G. Gilbreath to begin a longer term project of writing an updated history of East Tennessee State University; the first academic history of the institution to be written in over thirty years. |
2021 Recipients |
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Joshua Fortmann, a graduate student in the College of Public Health, will use his grant to support ongoing work on the Low Resource Toy Project. Fortmann will conduct research in several of the Archives' collections to explore the long history of craftsmanship and ingenuity in the region, drawing inspiration from the many examples of Appalachians who used innovation to foster joy and wonder, regardless of the quantity of material resources available. He will then apply these examples to the design of high-quality, educational toys that can be made in any setting with whatever materials are available. The project, supported by Doctors Without Borders, will result in a manual for creating toys that relies fully on illustrations, allowing it to be utilized by anyone regardless of their language or level of literacy. |
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Dr. Matthew Holtmeier, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Literature and Language, will use his grant to support ongoing research into the history of Appalachian films, and films set in Appalachia, drawing in part on the collections held by the Archives of Appalachia. |
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Dr. Ted Olson, a Professor in the Department of Appalachian Studies, will utilize materials from the Thomas G. Burton-Ambrose N. Manning Collection and the Robert Alexander Collection to support his research into the ballad singer Horton Barker. Olson will select previously unreleased recordings of Barker's ballad singing found in these collections and conduct original research for extensive liner notes for a release on Smithsonian Folkways Records, scheduled for 2023. |
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Dr. Robert Sawyer, a Professor in the Department of Literature and Language, will research the Christine Burleson Papers and the Burleson Family Papers to contribute to his article tentatively titled, "'Where the Wild Thyme Blows': Christine Burleson as Shakespearean Scholar." This article will draw new attention to Burleson's research into Shakespeare, particularly her interest in outdoor festival presentations of Shakespeare in Appalachia, exploring the degree to which Appalachian landscapes may have influenced her understanding of Shakespeare. |
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Hanna Traynham, a graduate student in the Department of Art and Design, will incorporate a selection of music from the Thomas G. Burton-Ambrose N. Manning Collection into her MFA thesis exhibition in the spring of 2022. Traynham will design and install a series of sculptures, inside of which a selected recording from the Archives will be broadcast from a small speaker, "beckoning viewers to physically lean into the works individually, placing their ear against the form." Traynham explains, "This experiential and investigative interaction with the artwork will encourage viewers to contemplate overlapping layers of Appalachian culture and consider their own connection to it." |
2019 Recipients |
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Valerie Fournier, a graduate student in the Department of Appalachian Studies, will use her grant to support summer research with the Thomas G. Burton-Ambrose N. Manning Collection. This research will contribute to her MA thesis on the ETSU Homefolks Festival in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The grant will support duplication, transcription, and recording efforts. |
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Dr. Matthew Holtmeier, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Literature and Language, will use his grant to support ongoing research into the history of Appalachian films, and films set in Appalachia, drawing in part on the collections held by the Archives of Appalachia. |
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Dr. Scott Honeycutt, an Associate Professor in the Department of Literature and Language, will use his grant to develop three "Rambler's Maps" focused on national forests in southern Appalachia. Funding will support summer research in the Archives map holdings along with site visits to the Cherokee, Nantahala, and Pisgah national forests. The resulting original maps will be deposited in the Archives of Appalachia. |
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Dr. Matthew Sutton, a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Literature and Language, will use his grant to fund summer research with the Lewis Deneumoustier Collection and the Earl R. Yates Collection. The funds will cover costs for duplication and publication of materials from these collections in his book-in-progress on vernacular musicians who came of age in the American South during the late Jim Crow era (from about 1900 to 1960) to analyze their perceptions of regional culture and class and race relations. |