Expertise and Scholarship Statement

Rachel Bates is a poet and scholar with a Ph.D. in English. She studies Appalachian literature against cultural, regional, and ecocritical frameworks – and also writes about Appalachia in her own creative work. She is especially interested in New Materialist and Affective approaches to Appalachian literature and Appalachian Studies generally. Her research focuses on ecological futures and topographic temporalities. She foregrounds endurance and sustainability narratives in contemporary Appalachian literature that deconstruct traditional hierarchies and reflect current activism and conservation efforts in Appalachia. In this way, she endeavors to imagine better futures for Appalachia in the Anthropocene. 

Curriculum Vitae

Conference Presentations

• 2027 Modern Language Association: “Next Gen and Gen Z: A Discussion of New York State’s Learning Standards, Assessments, and First Year Composition Writing Readiness”

• 2026 South Atlantic Modern Language Association Panel Chair for “Y’all Come Back Now: Topics on Hospitality in Appalachia”

• 2025 South Atlantic Modern Language Association: “Appalachia’s Troubled Waters”

• 2025 Old Dominion University Spring Writing Conference: “Secondary to Postsecondary Success: Exploring the K-16 Literacy Journey” 

• 2025 Modern Language Association: “Appalachia in the Anthropocene” 

• 2024 Modern Language Association: “Future Souths” Roundtable 

• 2023 East Tennessee State University Literary Festival Poetry Panelist 

• 2022 South Atlantic Modern Language Association: “Motherly Horrors: Pregnancy, Monstrosity, and Interstitiality in Science Fiction”

• 2022 The View from the Anthropocene Conference in Debrecen, Hungary: “Rising ‘Cricks’: Considering Rivers and Flooding in Contemporary Appalachian Literature as Agential Geographic Assemblages within Appalachian Ecologies”

• 2022 Southeastern American Studies Association: [Re]claiming Homeland: Resistance and Reclamation in Affrilachian Poetry 

• 2023-2025 Northside Charter High School: 

  • ELA Regents and US History Scoring Coordinator

  • Teacher-Facing Lexia Training

  • Grading Policy Revisions for Northside Charter High School

  • Implementing Student-Led Conferences: A Working Group 

  • Backwards Planning and Assessment

  • Triaging the “They Can’t…”

• 2021-2022 East Harlem Scholars High School:

  • “Creating a Project Based Learning Unit”

  • “High Expectations: Socratics and Rubrics” 

  • “Blackboard for Beginners”

  • “Scoring Norming for the New York State ELA Regents Exam”

• 2020 Katy ISD English II State Updated Curriculum Presentation for District Teachers (Co-Presenter) 

• 2019 Katy ISD Literacy Summit: "Cracking the Cursed Unit: Prevailing over Poetry"

• 2017 Katy ISD District Professional Learning Day (Co-Presenter): "Student Buy-In and Student Choice in ELA"