Travis Stimeling
The Center for Popular Music will explore the music by Appalachian women when a Feb. 11 lecture, postponed because of weather, is rescheduled.
A new date hasn’t been set.
Dr. Travis Stimeling’s lecture, entitled “‘If You Love My West Virginia’: Women Songwriters and Appalachian Politics” will be in the Center, Room 140, beginning at 4:30 p.m.
The presentation will examine the work of several significant Appalachian women songwriters – including Hazel Dickens, Elaine Purkey, Colleen Anderson and Shirley Stewart Burns – and will consider how they have engaged with the pressing political issues of their time.
“Since the early 20th century Mine Wars that raged in West Virginia and Kentucky, Appalachian women have used the power of their voices to sing protest songs that draw attention to the plights of miners’ wives,” Stimeling said. “In the century since, Appalachian women have written powerful songs that address the economic, environmental and health issues that they and their peers have faced.”
Dr. Greg Reish, director for the Center for Popular Music, says Stimeling is a dynamic young scholar making a big impact on the world of country music studies.
“In addition to his work on Austin’s alt-country scene and his current research on the creation of the Nashville sound, he also pursues compelling topics in ecomusicology, particularly as they relate to gender issues, conservation, Appalachia and his home state of West Virginia,” Reish said. “We are lucky to have such a groundbreaking and authoritative scholar presenting his work to the MTSU community.”
Stimeling is assistant professor of Music History at West Virginia University. His books include Cosmic Cowboys and New Hicks: The Countercultural Sounds of Austin’s Progressive Country Music Scene (2011), The Country Music Reader (2015) and The Oxford Handbook of Country Music (forthcoming).
For more information about the Center for Popular Music, please click here.
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