Sunrise On the Reaping: Teaching Appalachian History With The Hunger Games
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Senior
Major
English
Minor
Humanities
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Stephanie Fulcher
Presentation Format
Oral Presentation
Abstract/Description
The residents of the Appalachian region have long been mischaracterized as primitive hillbillies, a seeming smear campaign by an oppressive upper class bent on erasing a history of righteous rebellion, community, and dignity. Appalachia’s story is one of people banding together to demand and create a better world for themselves and their descendants, and this story is both reimagined and retold through a dystopian science fiction lens by Suzanne Collins’ in her trilogy The Hunger Games. The history of Kentucky’s Appalachia seems to walk hand in hand with the story of Panem’s District 12– Collins’ work can and should be used to teach Appalachian history, and has the power to dissolve stereotypes about that history and her citizens.
Fall Scholars Week 2025
English and Philosophy Panel
Sunrise On the Reaping: Teaching Appalachian History With The Hunger Games
The residents of the Appalachian region have long been mischaracterized as primitive hillbillies, a seeming smear campaign by an oppressive upper class bent on erasing a history of righteous rebellion, community, and dignity. Appalachia’s story is one of people banding together to demand and create a better world for themselves and their descendants, and this story is both reimagined and retold through a dystopian science fiction lens by Suzanne Collins’ in her trilogy The Hunger Games. The history of Kentucky’s Appalachia seems to walk hand in hand with the story of Panem’s District 12– Collins’ work can and should be used to teach Appalachian history, and has the power to dissolve stereotypes about that history and her citizens.