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Deborah Thompson
Coordinator of Country Dance Programs
Instructor of General Studies
Seabury Center,
Room 226
CPO 2159
| Office Hours: |
MWF 1:30-3:00 pm and by appointment |
Phone: 859-985-3142
Fax: 859-985-3919
E-Mail:
At Berea College since 2006
| Degrees |
- B.A., Hampshire College, 1981
- M.A., Appalachian State University, 1988
- Ph. D. candidate, University of Kentucky, 2011
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| Special Interests |
- Traditional music and dance, including singing and playing banjo, guitar, dulcimer
- Appalachian Studies and place-based education
- Cultural geography, especially the geography of music and religion
- Material culture, especially fiber arts and historic architecture
- Women’s studies
- Sustainable living
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| Papers and Publications |
- 2009- with Darrin Hacquard: “Region, Race, Representation: Observations on Traditional African-American Music in Appalachia,” Journal of Appalachian Studies, Vol. 15, Numbers 1 & 2, pp. 126-139
- 2009- Contributor to The Architectural History of Watauga County, North Carolina, Dan Pezzoni, editor. Boone, NC: Watauga County Historical Society.
- 2006 - “Searching for Silenced Voices in Appalachia,” article for special issue of GeoJournal 65: 67-78, and subsequent book, tentatively titled, Geography and Music, Stanley Waterman and Stanley Brunn, editors; Kluwer Springer Publishers, Berlin and New York
- 2006 - “Folklore and Folkways” chapter (co-written with Irene Moser) for A Handbook to Appalachia; Grace Toney Edwards, JoAnn Aust Asbury, and Ricky L. Cox, eds.; University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville
- 2006 - Writer and Section Editor on “Intentional Communities,” co-editor (with Shirley Stewart Burns and Shaunna Scott) for “Families and Communities” section, writer on “Music” section for Encyclopedia of Appalachia; Jean Haskell and Rudy Abramson, eds.; University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville
- 1998 - Transylvania: The Architectural History of a Mountain County. Co-authored with Laura A.W. Phillips. Raleigh, NC: Marblehead Publishing Co.
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| Biography |
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Deborah Thompson combines her love of old time music and dance with her desire to share them with others and serve the college and community as coordinator of country dance programs at Berea College. She is finishing her Ph.D. in Geography at the University of Kentucky, her dissertation research focusing on the interconnections of music and community in eastern Kentucky. She came to Berea College in 2006 on being awarded the first Appalachian Sound Archives Fellowship, then coordinated the Celebration of Traditional Music and served as the Programming Director for the Appalachian Center until 2009. Her teaching experience includes serving on the faculty of Union College in Barbourville, KY 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. Besides her extensive teaching background, 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.
She learned to play banjo, guitar, and dulcimer during the folk revival of the 1970s and has repertoire from living and playing in Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, and New England. Since 1976, she has performed both solo and with various groups, currently with the old time and Americana band, Skipjack. Although she was an avid folk dancer since her teenage years, Deborah started calling and organizing community dances in 1986. She has taught classes and workshops in Appalachian music and dance for all ages since 1984, including public school residencies and Elderhostels, Appalshop’s Banjo Day, Hindman Family Folk Week, Cowan Creek Music School, Augusta Heritage Center, and John C. Campbell Folk School. Her specialty is interpreting Appalachian music and dance, presenting programs that tie together the history of the Appalachian region, information about and demonstrations on various instruments, and a smattering of music theory. Her training includes many years of performance and playing with traditional musicians and interviewing traditional artists for cultural and heritage studies. In 1998, she traveled and performed with the Oh! Contraire dance group in Denmark. |
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