Date Awarded
Summer 2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
American Studies
Advisor
Leisa D Meyer
Committee Member
Elizabeth Losh
Committee Member
Alan Braddock
Abstract
The following essay and digital projects each engage both with a unique aspect of contemporary queer Appalachian art and culture as well as the ways in which oral history and digital humanities methodologies can be used to generate collaborative research possibilities. The first essay is an exploration of two LGBTQ+ Appalachian artists, Dustin Hall and Charles Williams, and the ways in which their work uses Donna Haraway’s “naturecultures” and Jose Muñoz’ understanding of queer futurity to rethink human relationships with non-human nature. The first digital project is an online exhibition of queer Appalachian artists and their work, bolstered by oral history interviews, that provides a platform for these artists to connect with one another and reach a wider audience. The second digital project is a digital archive of the Queer Appalachia Project’s Instagram account, serving as a means to hold the Project accountable for their numerous scandals and provide a resource for Appalachian Studies researchers to access the account in a way which is more easily navigable than the social media site. Together, these three projects embody an interdisciplinary intervention into the fields of Appalachian Studies, rural queer studies, oral history, and the digital humanities.
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-e6b5-xd42
Rights
© The Author
Recommended Citation
Cloe, Maxwell Mason, "“I Fixed Up The Trees To Give Them Some New Life:” Queer Desire, Affect, And Ecology In The Work Of Two Lgbtq+ Appalachian Artists/The Wildcrafting Our Queerness Project/The Queer Appalachia Preservation Project" (2021). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. William & Mary. Paper 1627047849.
http://dx.doi.org/10.21220/s2-e6b5-xd42
