Name: Teresa Goforth
Year in program: 7
ABD Y/N: Yes
Primary supervisor: Dr. Helen Veit
Major field: U.S. History
Minor fields: African American History, Public History
I am currently the Director of Exhibitions at the MSU Museum, but was able to return to my PhD path in 2019, after focusing on my museum career and raising a family.
Since completing my comprehensive exams, I have been working on my dissertation, tentatively titled Hillbilly Reds: Anti-Radical Rhetoric and Appalachian Reformers, 1964–1971. My research examines the War on Poverty in Appalachia through four case studies that highlight tensions between local political and economic power and poverty-focused reformers. A central theme of the dissertation is the activism of poor communities, who identified and pursued their own solutions to poverty, challenging stereotypes of “poor, dumb hillbillies” as the cause of their own struggles. The project also complicates the notion of Appalachia as a homogenous, poor, and white region by emphasizing its diversity and exploring how different groups both united and diverged when addressing shared problems.