Common Academic Experience: Storming Heaven

Missing teeth, family feuds, junked cars. Just a few of the truckload of disparaging images assigned to “Tennessee trash” and other Southern Appalachians.

Ed Francisco, English professor and writer-in-residence at Pellissippi State, will discuss the negative characteristics this region is labeled with and how to change outsiders’ perceptions.

His presentation, “Appalachian Stereotypes in Literature, Film and Popular Culture,” takes place at the Blount County Center October 27, 2:30-3:30 p.m., and the Division Street Campus November 3, also 2:30-3:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

“I will talk about some stereotypes that people outside the region have about us—and how we unfortunately often reinforce them,” Francisco said. “There are times we should talk back to those stereotypes.”

Francisco’s presentation is part of this year’s Common Academic Experience, which revolves around the book “Storming Heaven” by Denise Giardina. The novel is the story of a coal company’s impact on a small West Virginia town of the early 1900s.

“Southern Appalachia continues to be the poorest, least educated, least healthy part of the country,” Francisco said. “Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg exploit the hillbilly stereotype—the lazy, barefoot, shiftless hillbilly. A lot of people have made a lot of money exploiting that image—Minnie Pearl and ‘The Beverly Hillbillies,’ for instance.”

Dispelling the stereotype, he says, starts at home. Appalachians don’t have to give up their identity, but at the same time, they don’t have to surrender to the worst aspects of that identity. More and better education and cultivation of a culture in which “it’s not cool to be dumb” are part of the solution.

To learn more about Francisco’s presentation and other events related to the Common Academic Experience, contact the English Department at 694-6708.