Appalachian Warfare Program
With the generous assistance of the Slemp Foundation, the Appalachian Warfare Program provides opportunities for community members, students, teachers, and others to take part in activities concerning the Civil War in our region. Since the program's inception in 2011 the program has brought many renowned academics to UVa-Wise to lecture on a variety of Civil War topics of local interest, including playing host to the 2013 Society of Appalachian Historians annual meeting. Also, the program has allowed groups of UVa-Wise students, faculty, and staff, local teachers and students, and community members to go on several outings to various battlefields and regional historic sites. It has purchased thousands of dollars of regionally important books for local libraries and public schools. The Appalachian Warfare program seeks to highlight the rich Civil War heritage of the Appalachian region by providing a variety of educational opportunities to promote awareness of the role of local communities in the Civil War as a whole.
Since the inception of the AWP, UVa-Wise has hosted some of the premier speakers in Appalachian Studies. Among them: Kenneth Noe, Auburn University; Jonathan Sarris, North Carolina Wesleyan College; Steve Nash, East Tennessee State University; Anne Marshall, Mississippi State University; Bruce Stewart, Appalachian State University; Barton Myers, Washington and Lee University; Aaron Astor, Maryville College; and Brian Wills, Kennesaw State University.
The AWP has also played host to a veriety of Appalachia-centered events. These include hosting the annual meeting of the Society of Appalachian Historians in 2013 and hosting a Spring 2014 regional public history workshop during which participants spent the day with Dwight Pitcaithley, former Chief Historian of the National Park Service.
