Ph.D. 1976, Duke University
Professor Emeritus at Appalachian State University. She has conducted research in Appalachia, Wales, and China, with particular interests in community, family, and public policy as well as issues related to gender, class, and ethnicity. She has taught courses in the Anthropology Department, many of which overlap with Appalachian Studies, Asian Studies and Women's Studies. She was project director of the Appalachian Land Ownership Study (discussed in Who Owns Appalachia, University Press of Kentucky 1983), co-editor with Burton Purrington of Cultural Adaptions to Mountain Environments (University of Georgia Press, 1984), author of Rural Community in the Appalachian South (Waveland, 1996), co-editor with Carol Hill of Cultural Diversity in the US South (University of Georgia Press, 1998). Her research focuses on cultural and ethnic diversity in Appalachia, with attention to the African American and Jewish communities in Asheville, N.C., Melungeon history and identity, and rehistoricizing gender and ethnicity. She is co-editor of Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia (Kentucky University Press, 2012) [http://www.kentuckypress.com/live/title_detail.php?titleid=2580]
