JOHNSON CITY, TN – Dr. Ted Olson of East Tennessee State University's Department of Appalachian Studies has been named editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies, a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary scholarly publication.
The journal has been continuously published since 1995 by the Appalachian Studies Association, an organization that, according to its website at www.appalachianstudies.org, "was formed in 1977 by a group of scholars, teachers, and regional activists who believed that shared community has been and will continue to be important to those writing, researching, and teaching about Appalachia."
Describing the process of selecting Olson for the role of journal editor, Marshall University professor Dr. Edwina Pendarvis, the previous editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies and a member of the journal's Editorial Search Committee, said, "Our search committee, made up of three members of the editorial board, two of whom were previous editors of the Journal of Appalachian Studies, agreed that a good editor for the journal also had to be a good scholar, familiar with a broad body of knowledge in a discipline focusing on Appalachia.
"We wanted someone who understood the editorial process not only from an editor's point of view, but also from the point of view of a writer who submits a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal. Ted had exactly the kind of credentials we were looking for. He always seemed willing to look at things from other people's perspectives. In short, we were delighted that Ted applied for this demanding position."
The summer 2010 issue of the Journal of Appalachian Studies will be the first with Olson at the helm and will include, in addition to an introductory essay by Olson, a wide range of articles touching on such topics as agritourism in Valle Crucis, N.C., Appalachian images in American publishers' bindings between 1888 and 1930, African American music and musicians in Appalachia, and mobility and place attachment in rural America.
Olson, a 2008 Fulbright Senior Scholar, is the author of Blue Ridge Folklife and Breathing in Darkness: Poems. He has edited several volumes of works by the influential Appalachian author James Still, and, with the late music historian Charles K. Wolfe, Olson edited the award-winning scholarly study The Bristol Sessions: Writings About the Big Bang of Country Music. More recently, he served as editor of CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual and as co-editor, with ETSU professor Anthony P. Cavender, of the book A Tennessee Folklore Sampler: Selections from the Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin, 1935-2009.
For further information, contact Olson at (423) 439-4379 or e-mail olson@etsu.edu.
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Thank you!
