Covering 83 million acres of the mountain landscape, Appalachia’s forests are some of the most diverse temperate ecosystems in the world. Often popularly depicted as either isolated mountain environments or desolate post-industrial landscapes, the webs of meaning and economic activity at work in forest environments can be as diverse as the constituent biological communities. From forest commons to large-scale extractive industry, the widespread social impacts of managing, exploiting, stewarding, and protecting forest resources have been contested domains throughout the region’s history. Current conversations on the possibilities of future post-coal economies and the social impacts of forest ecologies and climate change demand a focus on Appalachian forests as multivalent sites and key actors in the region’s political ecologies. Through diverse disciplinary perspectives, this panel seeks to place Appalachian forests in the networks of meaning and political economic action in which they are enmeshed and build towards a more holistic understanding of Appalachian lifeworlds in forest environments.

We welcome paper submissions from a wide array of disciplinary perspectives (e.g. social sciences, humanities, environmental sciences and forestry) that critically examine the social and environmental entanglement in Appalachian forests. Papers may consider topics such as (though not limited to) changing property regimes and rights, the social impacts of climate change and environmental degradation, multivalent understandings of forest resources, uncertain futures of extractive economies, eco-tourism, cultural heritage entrenched in forest landscapes, experiences of forest environments, forests as sites of labor and production, bio-diversity and human activity, and land reclamation and reforestation.

Please send your submission to Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth (Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky) at jasper.waugh@uky.edu by November 17th, 2017.

Tags: Forest, Appalachia, Forestry, CFPs 2018