Please join the Center for Appalachian Studies in welcoming Dr. Jeffrey A. Keith, a professor of global studies at Warren Wilson College, Appalachian historian, and musician to our campus for a brown bag lecture on Friday, February 27th, from 12:30 to 1:30 in Linville Falls (PSU).
The title of Dr. Keith's lecture is Kyrgyztuckian Music as Cultural Foreign Policy: Reflections on Power, Music, and Representation in Appalachia and the Kyrgyz Republic
Jeff Keith earned his doctorate in history at the University of Kentucky, where he specialized in the history of Appalachia and U.S. foreign policy. As a graduate student, Keith began the University of Kentucky String Band, which performed across the eastern U.S. as the Red State Ramblers. The band came to the attention of the U.S. Department of State in 2012, when the Ramblers were invited to Kyrgyzstan and Ecuador as cultural emissaries for the U.S. This presentation will provide an overview of the band’s experiences in Kyrgyzstan, though it will include brief discussions of how that trip illustrated fascinating differences and connections between the mountains of Appalachia and Central Asia in terms of contemporary power dynamics, musical styles, and the politics of representation.
For more information, contact Dr. Katherine Ledford at ledfordke@appstate.edu or 262-4087.