Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2013 - 63

BRC

Theresa Burriss

Click to hear more from Cara's interview
with Theresa Burris.

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Radford University professor, director of RU’s
Appalachian Regional Studies Center
Theresa Burriss directs Radford
University’s Appalachian Regional Studies
Center, which houses the Appalachian Folklife
Archives and is the home of a number of programs including the Highland Summer
Conference and Appalachian Arts and Studies
in the Schools (AASIS). Burriss combines
education and scholarship with activism,
focusing in particular on mountaintop
removal mining (MTR) and racial identity
and discrimination. Her students are spending spring breaks learning about coal and
environmental issues, and are spending time
in Appalachian schools as mentors to young
people. “In addition to their heavy loads and
demanding classes, they take on more responsibility that isn’t required, simply due to their
dedication to making a difference.”
Kelli Billips, Taylor LaPrade, Victoria Curtis, Paige Cordial

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Radford University Appalachian Studies students; Virginia
Kelli Billips, Taylor LaPrade and Victoria
“There are so many stereotypes about the “Watching something grow from a small
Curtis all spent spring break 2013 in the people, the cultures, the practices, the land, little sprout to something big like a sunmountains of Kentucky, learning about and just about everything in this region,” says flower” – that was inspiration.
mountaintop removal mining and helping Curtis. “I have learned that hardly any of
She plans to move back to Bluefield after
revive the land impacted by it, planting these are true…
she graduates to help take care of her grandblight-resistant chestnut trees and learning
“I love to learn the ‘why’ of most any- parents – they spent so many years “keepin’
about the history and economy of the region. thing. That is why I love Appalachia. There the weeds out of me.”
The AASIS program inspired Taylor is so much of the ‘what’ that people know or
Paige Cordial, who grew up on Big Sewell
LaPrade to decide to teach instead of go into people think they know (myself included) Mountain, W.Va., is a doctoral student in
nursing. She picked up an Appalachian but the ‘what’ does not hold too much value counseling psychology at RU. She’s been livStudies minor, and “fell in love with the his- until you pair it with a ‘why.’…
ing in the midst of mountaintop removal
tory, the culture, and the traditions of both
“It does not matter if a person is pro-coal mining and working with communities, writthe region and its people.”
or against it, because from what I have seen ing her dissertation on how MTR affects wellThe alternative spring break changed her so far, the people who live here have this sense ness in central Appalachia, partnering with
view of young people’s ability to make a dif- of pride about themselves and their cause. activists Kathy Selvage, who’s based in
ference: “At first, it occurred to me that plant- They care!
Appalachia, and Jason Fults, who's in Florida.
ing a few trees could not eliminate or
“I am not used to seeing that, or maybe I
“I want people in the area to have work
completely fix the damage caused by MTR, just haven’t let myself see that until now.”
and to make a good living, and MTR coal
[but] I realized that it was not only my efforts,
“I grew up on an 80-acre farm,” says Kelli mining helps some people do that. However,
but also those of the students combined that Billips, who’s from Bluefield, W.Va. She grew I feel that it’s negative effects on the land and
one day could truly make a difference.”
up making apple butter and maple syrup, on the health of the people far outweigh its
Victoria Curtis, from Mechanicsville, Va., with cattle, helping her grandparents plant. economic benefits for the few. Also, the
is majoring in social science and minoring in She remembers planting sunflower seeds at beauty of our region is unsurpassed and
Appalachian studies. She wrote in her jour- the beginning of summer, and taking the offers us such richness even when so many of
nal: “This trip provided a perfect opportu- sunflowers to the fair at the end of summer: us live in poverty.” 
nity for me to be a part of something so much
bigger than myself…
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Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2013

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