WKU News

In the aftermath of J.D. Vance’s nomination for the Republican Party Vice Presidential candidate, longtime WKU History professor Anthony Harkins has been sought out to discuss Vance’s connections to Appalachia and issues with his representation of the region in Vance’s book Hillbilly Elegy.

Harkins is co-editor, with Meredith McCarroll, of Appalachian Reckoning- A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy. The book complicates simplistic visions that associate the region almost exclusively with death and decay, and instead makes clear Appalachia’s intellectual vitality, spiritual richness, and progressive possibilities.

Harkins recently told the Washington Post that Hillbilly Elegy should not be seen as the sole voice of a huge and diverse 13-state region. Harkins added Vance’s book “reinforces stereotypes of poverty and frames it as an individual choice instead of larger socioeconomic forces.”

Harkins has also recently been interviewed by and quoted in the Louisville Courier Journal, the Ohio Capitol Journal, and Metro UK in London, England. 

A faculty member at WKU since 2003, Harkins teaches and researches American popular culture history, particularly its connections to rural America and Appalachia. He is the author of the book Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon and has published work exploring the origins, evolution, and potential consequences of the envisioning of the center of the nation between the coasts as "flyover country."