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Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities

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Board Members and Staff

Dr. Benjamin Bankhurst
Title Director of the Center for Appalachian Studies and the Ray and Madeleine Professor of American History
Email bbankhur@shepherd.edu ( Email )
Phone 304-876-5253
Colonial and Revolutionary North America, Appalachian History and Culture, Atlantic History, Ireland and the Irish Diaspora

Ph.D., King’s College, University of London
M.A., King’s College, University of London
B.A., University of New Mexico

Dr. Bankhurst’s research focuses on migration to the Appalachian frontier in the colonial and revolutionary periods. Before Joining the History Department at Shepherd, Dr. Bankhurst held teaching and research appointments at the London School of Economics; the Institute of Historical Research; and Queen Mary, University of London. His articles have appeared in the Pennsylvania Magazine for History and Biography, The Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, and Eire/Ireland. The American Council for Irish Studies awarded his first book Ulster Presbyterians and the Scots Irish Diaspora, 1750-1763 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013) the Donald Murphy Prize.

Dr. Andro Barnett
Title Professor and APST Board Member
Email abarnett@shepherd.edu ( Email )
Phone 304-876-5259
Butcher Center 216

Dr. Ben Martz
Title Dean, College of Business and APST Board Member
Email bmartz@shepherd.edu ( Email )
Phone 304-876-5007
Contact For Master of Business Administration

Dr. Jeffrey Groff
Title Associate Professor of Physics, Chair, Institute of Environmental and Physical Sciences and APST Board Member
Email jgroff@shepherd.edu ( Email )
Phone 304-876-5143
Education:
B.A. McDaniel College
M.S. The College of William & Mary
Ph.D. The College of William & Mary

Rachael Meads
Title Assistant Director of Student Engagement and APST Board Member
Email rmeads@shepherd.edu ( Email )
Phone 304-876-5113
Courses: Appalachian Culture (APST 256/556), Appalachian Music and Ethnomusicology (APST 343/543)

M.A., West Virginia University
B.A., Shepherd College

Rachael Meads is an educator, mother, and advocate for Appalachia, social justice, and the power of shared experiences to connect communities. As the Assistant Director of Student Engagement at Shepherd, she environmentally engineers learning opportunities for students and the greater community. Each year she oversees more than 175 events including the annual student leadership conference, Program Board activities, and the Performing Arts Series at Shepherd. Born and raised in Gilmer County, she is a passionate West Virginian who teaches in Shepherd’s Appalachian Studies program. She is the founder of the Appalachian Heritage Festival at Shepherd, a guest lecturer in the NEH Teacher Training Institute held at Shepherd, and a former program chair for the Appalachian Studies Association annual conference. In March 2018, she was honored to receive Shepherd’s Phenomenal Woman Award. She loves stories, gardening, singing with her family, podcasts, and homegrown tomatoes.

Rachael Meads, Professional Vitae

Julie Shehan
Title Creative Writing major and graduate student
Julie Shehan is a Creative Writing major and graduate student at Shepherd University. Her stories have been published in the Anthology of Appalachian Writers as well as Sans Merci magazine. Her artwork was featured in Shepherd University’s Art Exhibit, Ties that Bind, and she is a contributor to Voices from Appalachia Radio Show. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

Isabelle Lawrence
Title Appalachian Studies Major
Isabelle Lawrence is a first-year (2022-23) student at Shepherd University majoring in Appalachian Studies, double minoring in Environmental Studies and Mass Communications. She is interested in the environment as well as cultural studies of the region. “Izzy,” as friends refer to her, is from Annapolis, Maryland, graduating from Annapolis High School in

2021. She serves on the Appalachian Studies Board, representing the Shepherd undergraduate point of view in both program and curricular concerns.

Adam Booth
Title Coordinator of Speak Storytelling Series
Email adam@adam-booth.com ( Email )
Phone 304-886-9481
Adam Booth is an award-winning storyteller and adjunct professor in the Appalachian Studies Program at Shepherd, teaching storytelling and traditional music. Booth holds an MM degree from Case Western Reserve University in Music History, graduating magna cum laude. Adam Booth’s original stories blend traditional mountain folklore, music, and an awareness of contemporary Appalachia. He has been featured at the International Storytelling Center, the National Storytelling Festival, the Appalachian Studies Association Conference, the National Storytelling Conference, and has been a Spoken Word Resident at the Banff Centre. His recordings have received two Parents’ Choice Silver Honors and three Storytelling World Awards and Honors. He is a four-time champion of the West Virginia Liars’ Contest. Booth is founder and coordinator for the acclaimed Speak Storytelling Series, a nationally and internationally recognized program of storyteller and part of the Appalachian Studies Program at Shepherd University.


adam-booth.com

Dr. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt
Title Distinguished Professor of English, Emerita; and Former Director of Appalachian Studies
Email sshurbut@shepherd.edu ( Email )
A Ph.D. graduate from the University of Georgia in Linguistics and Nineteenth-Century British and American Literature, Dr. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt is Director of the Center for Appalachian Studies and Communities at Shepherd University and Coordinator for Appalachian Graduate Studies at Shepherd. She is managing editor of the 16-volume Anthology of Appalachian Writers (ISSN 1946-3103), an annual anthology of Appalachian, poets, fiction writers, essayists, and photographic artists. Shurbutt’s scholarship and writing has appeared in The Journal of Appalachian Studies, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, North Carolina Review, Women’s Studies, Women and Language, Essays in Literature, The Southern Literary Journal, Encyclopedia of American Literature, and Scribner’s American Writers and World Writers series, among others. She has chapters in “Feminism in Literature” (Gale); “Untying the Gender Knot” (Greenwood Press); “Destinations and Discoveries” (2014), and is author of books about travel, writing, and literature. Her book “Silas House: Exploring an Appalachian Writer’s Work” (University of Kentucky Press) was nominated for the South Atlantic Modern Language Association’s 2022 Book Award. Shurbutt’s latest publication is “Conflict and Resolution: Eco-Environmentalism in Charles Frazier’s Anti-War Novel Cold Mountain” published in “Appalachian Ecocriticism and the Paradox of Place” (UGA Press, 2023).