Leading historian of Appalachia to give lecture on the region tonight at the University of Kentucky

Dr. Ronald Eller, the leading historian of modern Appalachia, will give a public lecture about the region tonight at the  University of Kentucky as part of his 2011-12 Distinguished Professorship in the College of Arts and Sciences.

In "Seeking the Good Life in America: Lessons From the Appalachian Past," Eller will discuss what the future holds for the region, using its history as a foundation. He thinks Appalachia must undergo a deep transformation in values and behavior, along with the rest of America, in order to transcend the region's environmental, social and economic crises. He will explore how understanding the region's history is vital in building a broad social movement in the 21st Century.

A native of West Virginia, Ron Eller has taught and written about Appalachia for more than 40 years, and was director of UK's Appalachian Center for 16 years. He was chairman of the Governor’s Kentucky Appalachian Task Force, the first chairman of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission and as a member of the Sustainable Communities Task Force of President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development. He was co-principal investigator on the project that established the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, which publishes The Rural Blog and is based at UK with academic partners at 28 universities in 18 states from Maine to Alaska to Texas.

Ann Kingsolver, director of the Appalachian Center and UK's Appalachian Studies Program, said in a UK press release that Eller's discussion is much anticipated. “He has inspired a generation of historians to take multiple perspectives into account, giving as strong a voice to local experience as to dominant state and industrial perspectives," Kingsolver said.

The lecture is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the William T. Young Library auditorium.  It is free and open to the public, and a reception will follow.