Director of Programming for the Appalachian Center at Berea College

• B.A., Hampshire College, 1981 (American and Appalachian Studies)
• M.A., Appalachian State University, 1988 (Appalachian Studies)
• Ph.D. Candidate, University of Kentucky (Geography, Appalachian Topic)

Before coming to Berea College, Deborah Thompson served on the faculty of Union College in Barbourville, Kentucky, from 1991-2001, where she was director of the Appalachian Semester and assistant professor of Appalachian Studies.  She has taught undergraduate-level courses in Appalachian Studies, Sociology, Geography, and Women’s Studies.  She has also worked as a local arts council director, principal investigator for historic architecture surveys, and resident director for cultural study programs in Appalachia, Mexico, and the Texas-Mexico border.

Why Appalachian Studies?
“While pursuing American Studies, I saw Appalachian Studies as a focus point. American Studies was too broad, but Appalachian Studies was like a microcosm of America.  I had originally started out as a chemistry major, as a way to make a living and a difference in the world.  When I began my Appalachian Studies program it was a way of understanding place in culture.  This [Appalachia] was not my culture, but traditional culture was of interest to me as well as the activism that was happening in the region at the time. I admired how people seemed to be willing to make their own choices—choosing to live a life more traditionally-based, not following the mainstream.  I really value a rural-based culture and the region felt like home. I related so well to it that I wanted to stay, which further encouraged my study.”

How has your degree served you professionally?
“My life has intertwined both the personal and the professional.  My goal was always to do something personally fulfilling and then seek to find employment based on that.  I’m still doing music research I began in undergraduate programs.  I now serve as the programming director at the Appalachian Center, but prior to coming to Berea, I also served as director of an arts council in an Appalachian county.  Appalachian Studies allowed me to do field research on architecture in the mountains—local history research.  My experience as a student in an Appalachian Studies semester program and my subsequent degree allowed me to be the director of Appalachian Semester at Union College.  My professional life has been centered around the study of the culture of the Appalachian Region and I have been able to get various jobs where I document, collect, or teach about it.  It’s important [for students] to think about how to combine a degree in Appalachian Studies with other skills and interests and then move forward with the combination of talents and interests.”

What type of student would benefit from this program?
“The kind of student searching for identity.  It is good for people who maybe feel that they don’t fit in somewhere or people wondering what their place is in the world.  Someone who likes to see the interconnections between things—history, politics, culture, landscape, and economics.  People that really appreciate a place, sense of place, or people who feel displaced can find a place in Appalachian Studies.  Even if not from this place, it helps you figure out how to make a connection to a place.”

“When teaching the Appalachian Semester, most of my students were not from the region.  They came looking for a place with culture and often felt their own didn’t have a culture.  Their study heightened their understanding of how communities work and of their own cultures.  Appalachian Studies values the whole person.  It also values a variety of disciplines, so that one doesn’t feel locked into a certain way of looking at something.”