2019 International Mountain Studies Symposium

Mountains from around the world, Collage 1

About the 2019 Symposium

Kickoff lecture, Monday, March 11, 2019, 5:00 pm, Turchin Center Lecture Hall, Room 1102

Notes from the Field: Some Recent Geologic and Climate Change Impacts on Nepal’s Glaciers

Alton C. Byers

Senior Research Associate and Faculty
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR)
University of Colorado Boulder

The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts has kindly opened the Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition exhibit on the second floor following Alton C. Byer's Kickoff Lecture until 7:30 pm. We will enjoy a light reception, and a cash bar will be available.

On Tuesday, March 12, 2019, Appalachian State University will bring together international scholars specializing in mountain studies to engage with students, faculty and the community for a one day academic symposium. Scholars from Austria, France, Scotland, Switzerland, and Wales will present their research alongside members of our campus community—faculty, graduate students, and advanced undergraduate students—focusing our campus’s attention on comparative mountain studies between the Appalachian Mountains and other mountain regions around the world. The symposium begins at 8:30 AM and ends at 5:45 PM. Three keynote addresses and over fifty presentations will be free and open to our campus and community. All presentations will occur on the 4th floor of Plemmons Student Union.

Keynote speakers:

  • Jon Mathieu, professor emeritus of history, University of Lucerne, Switzerland
    • Mountain Regions in Historical Interaction: Alps and Appalachia (8:30-9:15 AM, Parkway Ballroom 420, PSU)
  • Gilles Rudaz, lecturer and associate researcher, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Geneva, Switzerland
    • Constructing Mountains: The Specificity of Mountain Areas and Societies in Debate (1:00-1:45 PM, Parkway Ballroom 420, PSU
  • Dawn Hollis, Leverhulme Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
    • A Mountains Manifesto? Toward the Historical Mountain Humanities (5:00-5:45 PM, Rough Ridge 415, PSU)

The day (3/12) concludes with an evening of Appalachian literature, music, and dance from 8:00 to 10:00 PM in Parkway Ballroom 420, Plemmons Student Union. Joseph Bathanti will read a bit of his writing about mountains followed by the debut of the Appalachian Studies String Band (Alex Hooker, Trevor McKenzie, Aaron Ratcliffe, and Julie Shepherd-Powell). The Cole Mountain Cloggers (CMC) will perform. CMC is a youth dance team preserving the Appalachian tradition of Smooth Mountain Dance and Southern Appalachian Freestyle Clogging. Wear your dancing shoes! Dance callers John Turner and Jeff Atkins, director of CMC, will get us moving in some traditional square dances and maybe a contra dance or two. Jeff is a 2018 inductee into America's Clogging Hall of Fame.

All symposium events, including the evening celebration of Appalachian literature, music, and dance, are free and open to the public.

Mountains from around the world, Collage 2

Planning Committee Members

Katherine Ledford, Appalachian Studies (chair)

Takahiro Omori, Appalachian Studies (graduate assistant)

  • Richard Campbell, Outdoor Programs
  • Kristan Cockerill, Cultural, Gender and Global Studies
  • Jeanne Dubino, Cultural, Gender and Global Studies
  • Laura Johnston, Physical Plant Administration and Appalachian Studies
  • Adam Julian, Office of International Education and Development
  • Josh McClenney, Appalachian Studies
  • Cody Miller, Sustainable Development
  • Dinesh Paudel, Sustainable Development
  • Baker Perry, Geography and Planning
  • Christian Quendler, University of Innsbruck
  • Matthew Richards, Communications
  • Adam Sheffield, Belk Library and Information Commons
  • Ian Snider, Sustainable Development
  • Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand, Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Sponsors

Belk Library and Information Commons

Cratis D. Williams School of Graduate Studies

Department of Biology

Department of Cultural, Gender, and Global Studies

Department of Economics

Department of Geography and Planning

Department of Health and Exercise Science

Department of History

Department of Philosophy and Religion

Department of Sociology

Department of Sustainable Development

Turchin Center for the Visual Arts

Partners

Center for Appalachian Studies

The Center for Appalachian Studies promotes public programs, community collaboration, civic engagement and scholarship on the Appalachian region. The center is committed to building healthy communities and deepening knowledge of Appalachia’s past, present and future through community-based research and engagement. Learn more at https://appcenter.appstate.edu.

The College of Arts and Sciences

The College of Arts and Sciences is home to 16 academic departments, one stand-alone academic program, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. The College of Arts and Sciences aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and unique location. The college’s values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of its students as global citizens. There are approximately 6,100 student majors in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing Appalachian's general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at https://cas.appstate.edu.

Office of International Education and Development 

The OIED is responsible for spearheading the internationalization efforts at Appalachian. The internationalization mission of Appalachian is to develop awareness, knowledge, appreciation and respect of cultural differences in both domestic and international contexts in its students, faculty, staff and the surrounding communities. The university is also dedicated to creating a campus environment that builds the theoretical and practical skills needed to interact effectively in a global society. Learn more at https://international.appstate.edu.