Conference Theme:

A Voice That Carries: Embracing Authenticity in an Artificial Age

Final Program 

The conference program features a variety of individual presentations, panel presentations, workshops, a round table discussion, an open-mic session, and a keynote address. The program will be available in digital format only on the day of the conference.

Registration Required (CLOSED)

The conference is free for presenters and attendees, but registration is required. Registration is open through September 20, 2025. Please use the online registration form to register.

Description

Writing and rhetoric graduate students, instructors, and scholars in the Appalachian region are invited to attend the Corridors: Blue Ridge Writing & Rhetoric Conference on September 27, 2025, at Radford University in Virginia. (Registration is required.) The conference theme (A Voice That Carries: Embracing Authenticity in an Artificial Age) focuses on pedagogy, practice, and research that help students and faculty alike reconnect to, re-engage with, and celebrate their authentic voices. As a new age of artificiality sets in, this conference’s purpose is to embrace authenticity by providing a space where real voices can be heard in rhetorically meaningful, creative, and intellectual ways. These voices can, then, engage with others in authentic ways that inspire real action and change within our classrooms, across our campuses, and throughout our communities. 

“A voice that carries” is an idiom that expresses the physical ability of sound to travel distances as well as a person’s voice to be impactful, influential, or inspirational to listeners and readers. Its dual literal and figurative meanings can have lasting positive effects on audiences, sometimes in surprising ways not anticipated by speakers and writers. Communication that can be both clearly heard and humanly understood is what leaves a mark, makes a connection, and testifies of the power of words on the human spirit. Therefore, the goal of this conference is to bring together writing and rhetoric humans who desire to carry their voices in presentation rooms and during hallway conversations in the name of authenticity. 

Timeline

• Call for Proposals Released: February 15, 2025

• Conference Proposals Due: April 30, 2025

• Notifications Sent: May 20, 2025

• Confirmation of Presenters Due: June 20, 2025

• Registration Opens: July 1, 2025

• Draft Program Available: July 1, 2025

• Final Program Available: August 11, 2025

• Registration Closes: September 20, 2025

Theresa L. Burriss joined Emory & Henry University as the Assistant Vice President of Community Engagement and Economic Development in August 2023 after teaching at Radford University (RU) for more than 25 years. While at RU, she served as Director of Appalachian Studies and the Appalachian Regional and Rural Studies Center, Coordinator of the Ed.D. in Education Program, and Director of Academic Outreach at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center in Abingdon.

Theresa has a BA (Philosophy) from Emory University in Atlanta, GA, an MS (English) from Radford University in Radford, VA, and a PhD (Interdisciplinary Studies) from the Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, OH. 

For the 2021 fall semester, Theresa was awarded a Fulbright teaching and research grant to Romania. She taught Appalachian literature to third-year American Studies students at Transilvania University in Brasov and conducted ethnographic research in the Jiu Valley, Romania’s coalmining region. She received a Fulbright extension for fall 2022 to conduct additional research in the Jiu Valley, with the information leading to cross-cultural coal community research between Central Appalachia and the Jiu Valley. Related to this work, she published “Fortuitous Flashpoint: How an Appalachian-Carpathian Mountain Conference Transformed My Life” in the Bulletin of Transilvania University of Brasov’s special issue of the 2022 Appalachian-Carpathian Mountain Conference Proceedings.

Theresa serves as co-editor for Ohio University Press’s New Approaches to Appalachian Studies series. She has published literary criticism on the Affrilachian Writers, including chapters in An American Vein: Critical Readings in Appalachian Literature (Ohio UP 2005) and Appalachia in the Classroom: Teaching the Region (Ohio UP 2013), for which she served as co-editor. Her chapter “Ecofeminist Sensibilities and Rural Land Literacies in the Work of Contemporary Appalachian Novelist Ann Pancake" is part of the collection Ecofeminism and Literature: Intersectional and International Voices (Routledge 2018). Her photos and contextual essay “Benham, Kentucky, Coalminer and Wise County, Virginia, Landscape” are included in Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy (West Virginia UP 2019). “Raven, Woman, Man: A/Religious Ecocritical Reading of Jim Minick’s Fire Is Your Water” appeared in Appalachian Ecocriticism (U of Georgia P 2023). She has two co-authored chapters in the anthology Engaging Appalachia: A Guidebook for Building Capacity and Sustainability (UP of Kentucky 2023): “Town and Gown Collaborations in Southwest Virginia Post-Coal Communities: Clinch River Valley Initiative and Radford University Economic Diversification Efforts” and “Bringing Back the Forest: University Outreach, Community Engagement, and Partnerships for the Reforestation of Coal Mines in Appalachia.” In December 2022, her article “The Activism of Dance Performance in Appalachia: Utilizing the Arts to Address Social and Environmental Crisis and Injustice in the Mountains” was published in the American, British and Canadian Studies special issue of Staging Crisis in Contemporary North American Theater and Performance. 

She was appointed by former Governor Ralph Northam to serve on the Virginia Council on Environmental Justice, for which she continues to serve. She was awarded an NEH Summer Institute Grant for the 2015 “Transcendentalism and Reform in the Age of Emerson, Thoreau, and Fuller” in Concord, MA. As the U.S. co-chair for both the 2019 and 2022 Appalachian-Carpathian Mountain Conference, she worked with her Transilvania University colleagues. Theresa is a board member for the nonprofit organization Appalachian Sustainable Development.

In her spare time, she enjoys running and hiking throughout the Appalachian region. Theresa lives on a nontraditional 120-acre farm and artist retreat, Gwendolyn Ridge, in Washington County, VA, with her two sons and husband, their 11 rescue animals, and various wild animals.

Conference Details

• 5th Annual Corridors: Blue Ridge Writing & Rhetoric Conference

• One-day, in-person, Appalachian regional conference nestled in the breath-taking Blue Ridge Mountains in southwest Virginia on the beautiful Radford University campus

• FREE for presenters and attendees (registration required by September 20) (REGISTRATION IS CLOSED.)

• Conference runs from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with breakfast nibbles provided, lunch on your own, and a dinner gathering of your choice from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

• FREE parking on the Radford University campus

Conference Schedule At-a-Glance
Location: Hemphill Hall

8:00-8:30 Check In, Breakfast Nibbles 1st Floor Atrium

8:30-8:45 Welcome Room 1016

9:00-10:15 Session A Rooms 3008, 3012, 3016, 3020

10:30-11:45 Session B Rooms 3008, 3012, 3016, 3020

11:45-1:00 Lunch On Your Own On- and Off-Campus Locations

1:00-2:00 Keynote Address Room 1016

2:15-3:30 Session C Rooms 3008, 3012, 3016, 3020

3:45-5:00 Session D Rooms 3008, 3012, 3016, 3020

5:30-7:30 Dinner A Gathering of Your Choice

Lunch (on your own) Options

Other events are happening on campus the day of the conference, so on- and off-campus eating establishments are expected to be busy. Please plan accordingly.

On-Campus Hemphill Hall (walk)

• Starbucks (third floor)

On-Campus Dalton Hall (walk)
Visit Dining Services webpage for hours of operation and menu

• Dalton Kitchen

• Wendy’s

• Tartan Pizza Co.

• Bowl Life

• 1910 Café

On-Campus "The Bonnie" Hurlburt Student Center (walk)
Visit Dining Services webpage for hours of operation and menu

• Chick-Fil-A

• Hissho Sushi

• Student Choice (Food Your Way)

• Honeycomb Commons

Across the Street from Campus (walk)

• BT’s Restaurant, 218 Tyler Avenue

• Subway, 310 Tyler Avenue

• Benny Nicola's (Home of the Virginia Slice), 1018 Clement Street

• Jimmy John's, 1020 Clement Street

Downtown Radford (walk or drive; free downtown parking available)

• Amando’s Italian Kitchen, 1154 East Main Street

• Arabica Cafe & Bakery, 1158 East Main Street

• Nagoya Sushi, 1144 East Main Street

• Golden Bowl Asian Grill, 1802 East Main Street

• Domino's Pizza, 1700 East Main Street

Short Distance from Campus (drive; free parking available)
East End Radford

• Macado’s, 510 East Main Street

• Highlander Pizza, 700 East Main Street

Up Tyler Avenue Toward 1-81 

• Thai This Express (Next to the Marathon Gas Station), 1401 Tyler Avenue

• Lin's House (By Food Lion), 1200 Tyler Avenue

• Papa Johns (By Food Lion), 1200 Tyler Avenue

• Food Lion, 1200 Tyler Avenue

• Food City, 1701 Tyler Avenue

West End Radford 

• Brick House Pizza, 311 West Main Street

• Radford  Coffee Company, 333 West Main Street

• Sonic, 113 West Main Street

• Tha' Dawg House, 600 West Main Street

• El Charro Mexican Grill, 713 West  Main Street

• Latino's Taste Restaurant, 1126 West Main Street

Across the Bridge 

• Chipotle Mexican Grill, 7406 Lee Highway

• McDonald's, 7484 Lee Highway

• Cook Out, 7400 Lee Highway

• Long John Silver's, 7420 Lee Highway

• Hank's Drive-In, 7431 Lee Highway

• Little Caesar's Pizza, 7414 Lee Highway

• Bojangles, 7455 Lee Highway

• Hardee's, 7353 Lee Highway

• Kroger, 7480 Lee Highway

• Sal's Jr Pizza and Italian Restaurant (By Walmart), 7401 Peppers Ferry Boulevard

• Walmart, 7373 Peppers Ferry Boulevard

Dinner Gathering Options in Radford

Select an option when you register for the conference. A faculty member or graduate student will host each gathering. You pay for your own dinner. 

• Sharkey’s Wing & Rib Joint (Downtown Radford), 1202 East Main Street

• Bee & Butter Restaurant & Rooftop Bar (Across the Street from Campus at the Highlander Hotel), 604 Tyler Avenue, Sixth Floor

• Sal’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria (West End Radford), 709 West Main Street

• Rocas Mexican Grill (Across the Bridge), 7523 Lee Highway

• The River Company Restaurant and Brewery (Across the Bridge), 6633 Viscoe Road

Lodging Options

Other events are happening on campus the day of the conference, so hotels close to campus are expected to be busy. Please make your lodging reservations early.

In Radford (minutes to RU campus)

• Highlander Hotel (Across the Street from Campus), 604 Tyler Avenue

• La Quinta Inn by Wyndham, 1450 Tyler Avenue

• Comfort Inn & Suites, 2331 Tyler Avenue

• Tru by Hilton, 2300 Tyler Avenue

• Nessel Rod on the New B&B, 7535 Lee Highway 

In Christiansburg (20-minute drive to RU campus)

• Holiday Inn

• Holiday Inn Express

• Hampton Inn

• Quality Inn

• Wingate by Wyndham

• Homewood Suites by Hilton

• Fairfield Inn by Marriott

• Oaks Victorian Inn B&B 

In Dublin (20-minute drive to RU campus)

• Holiday Inn Express

• Wingate by Wyndham

• Quality Inn

• Hampton Inn

• Rockwood Manor B&B 

Directions to Radford University

Flying

• Fly to Roanoke-Blacksburg Regional Airport (which is about 36 miles from Radford). Car rentals are available at the airport. From the airport, take Interstate 581-North to Interstate 81-South. From Interstate 81-South, take Exit 109 onto Route 177/Tyler Avenue into Radford. 

Driving South on I-81

• From Interstate 81-South, take Exit 109 onto Route 177/Tyler Avenue into Radford. 

Driving North on I-81

• From Interstate 81-North, take Exit 105 onto West Main Street into Radford.

From Dublin or Christiansburg

• Take State Route 11 (also known as Lee Highway) into Radford. 

Hemphill Hall Entrance and Nearby Parking

• Because Hemphill Hall is normally closed on Saturdays, conference attendees will need to enter Hemphill Hall on the East Main Street side. When you enter Hemphill Hall from East Main Street, you will be on the first floor where you can check-in and get a bite to eat. 

• Recommended parking lots for easy access to Hemphill Hall, East Main Street side, are Lot GG, Lot C, and Lot B. Disabled parking is available in all three lots. Lot F is also nearby, but you will need to go down the outdoor stairs (between Muse Hall and Hemphill Hall) to get to the East Main Street entrance. See the campus parking map for assistance.

• Parking on campus is free on Saturdays; however, students tend to park on campus near their dormitories. Also, other events are happening on campus the day of the conference, so parking may be tricky. Please allow plenty of time to get to campus and find parking. Even so, there should be parking near Hemphill Hall in the lots indicated above. If not, other locations are available. See the campus parking map for assistance.

Notes of Interest

• Starbucks is located in Hemphill Hall on the third floor. It opens on Saturdays at 9 a.m. There is also a Starbucks on Lee Highway (State Route 11) across the bridge and next to Food City on Tyler Avenue. You can also find fresh-brewed coffee at the Radford Coffee Company on West Main Street.

• Bisset Park and Wildwood Park are short drives from campus. (Their respective entrances are nearly across the street from each other on East Main Street.) They both have paved walking trails. The Bisset Park walking trail follows the mighty (on occasion) New River. The Wildwood Park walking trail is in a beautiful wooded area where you may be able to see birds and (hopefully harmless) critters native to this area. 

Conference Committee

• Laura Vernon, Professor of English, Professional Writing Program

• Laurie Cubbison, Professor of English, First- and Second-Year Writing Program

• Sydney Jones, Graduate Student, Master's of English Program