Biography
KEVIN BARKSDALE (Ph.D. West Virginia), a professor of American history, is a specialist in Appalachian and West Virginia history. He has extensive teaching experience in Appalachian history and culture, Native American Studies, and Coalfield/Working Class history. His research interests include the 18th century Appalachian backcountry, southeastern Amerindian history, and the trans-Appalachian borderlands. He is the author of The Lost State of Franklin: America’s First Secession (Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 2008). He is the editor of the state’s history journal West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional Studies and is currently working on a book (with Dr. Chris White) entitled Trans-Appalachian Epidemics: An Interdisciplinary History from Contact to COVID.