Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management

Committee Chair/Advisor

Corliss Outley

Committee Member

Aby Sène-Harper

Committee Member

Stephen Lewis

Committee Member

Natasha Croom

Abstract

Appalachia, often described as a region marked by exploitation and deprivation, can also be understood as a traumatized and resilient place entangled with the lives of its inhabitants. Guided by the framework of land-based radical healing, I considered collective, emplaced experiences of oppression and healing in Appalachia, where youth are already imagining futures where they and their communities heal from dispossession and exploitation. Collaborating with an organization serving Appalachians 11-24 years old, we implemented a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project, asking: What possibilities become imaginable when Appalachian youth engage in land-based radical healing through nature, place-based inquiry, counter-storytelling, and art?

Over 13 months, youth co-researchers and I developed a 4-day summer camp for youth to swap knowledge and skills, deepen connections with nature, collectively heal, and reimagine the world. Rather than following methodological instructions, I diffracted the data with concepts I repeatedly encountered in literature: disturbance, relationality, solidarity, and otherwise.

Findings highlight how disturbance, like a hurricane or sociopolitical attack, can become a site for relationality, solidarity, and becoming otherwise. Youth co-researchers created a counterspace in which they and their peers could perform their grief and joy together amidst environmental and social trauma. Youth connected nature to the social issues they cared about and identified ways to address them. I propose some implications for practitioners interested in youth-adult partnerships and for faculty interested in community-engaged research.

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-9809-8514

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