Dr. Stephen Brown to speak on Appalachian pioneer life on WVU Tech campus

West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech) and the City of Beckley are partnering to bring Dr. Stephen Brown to Carter Hall on Tech’s campus for the 12th Annual Otis K. Rice Lecture series. Dr. Brown’s talk, "Pioneer Life and Folkways: Frontier Culture and its Impact on the Future of West Virginia", will be held in the Carter Hall auditorium on November 10, 2022 at 6:30 p.m.

Dr. Brown is a Professor Emeritus and former dean at WVU Tech, where he spent 48 years as an educator and scholar. His research focuses on Appalachia, West Virginia, and its peoples, cultures and values. Dr. Brown is the author of a biography on John G. Jackson, a congressman, judge and state legislator from Clarksburg, West Virginia (then Virginia), and "Mountain State: An Introduction to West Virginia". He also collaborated with Otis K. Rice, for whom this lecture series is named, on "West Virginia: A History," which remains a seminal work in West Virginia history.  Otis K. Rice was West Virginia’s first Historian Laureate and spent the majority of his career at WVU Tech.

A native of Clay County, Dr. Brown was born, raised and educated in West Virginia. He earned his bachelor’s degree from West Virginia Institute of Technology in 1972, his master’s degree from Marshall, and Ph.D. from West Virginia University. In 1973, he began teaching in the history department at Tech, where he taught an array of subjects including American, European and world history. His favorite course was “West Virginia in its Appalachian Setting.”

Dr. Brown’s lecture will focus on the persistence of frontier culture in Appalachia. The lecture will also explore the folkways and living conditions of early settlers, the unique challenges they encountered and the forces that preserved their culture for nearly a century. 

This event is free and open to the public.