Shannon Telenko

In the United States we often see the physical and economic effects of deindustrialization and post-agrarianism in the landscape- abandoned buildings, run-down houses, barns in ruin, and vacant fields and lots - but how do deindustrialization and post-agrarianism affect people and culture? Who decides to stay after the mills and factories have all but closed and the farms have been bought up, to make a career and life for themselves in the community? Who decides to leave creating an overall trend of out-migration from these de-industrialized and economically distressed cities and countrysides? For people who migrate into these communities, sometimes in search of safe and affordable housing and sometimes for the few remaining unskilled jobs, how are they accepted ? When and why aren't they accepted? My dissertation will focus on a place experiencing the harsh effects of post-industrialism and post-agrarianism, how the people in this place come to perceive particular aspects of life "in ruin" and particular sites as "blighted," and how new, low-income families are coping in this distressed, volatile community.

Ph.D. student in the Race, Gender, and Social Justice program. M.Ed. in Higher Education Administration from Peabody College at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. B.S. in Business Administration at Robert Morris University in Coraopolis, PA.