Hannah B. Harvey earned her Ph.D. (2006) and M.A. (2003) in Performance Studies within The Department of Communication Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received her B.A. (2001) in a self-designed cross-disciplinary program between Theatre Arts, Communication Studies, and English at Furman University. Her primary teaching, research, and performance work are in the areas of oral traditions and storytelling, critical performance ethnography, cultural performance, the performance of literature, and the body in performance. She is the artistic director of The KSU Tellers storytelling company.
Hannah grew up in mountainous northeast Tennessee, just minutes away from the Jonesboro National Storytelling Festival. Her grandfather inspired a lifelong passion in storytelling, and her graduate work in performance ethnography brought her back to these family and regional tales.
Her current research focuses on the politics of Appalachian cultural identity, centering on the ways that identity, gender, and culture are constructed and contested through performances of everyday life. Her recent fieldwork research with disabled coal miners in southwest Virginia culminated in a live ethnographic performance of their oral histories, Out of the Dark: The Oral Histories of Appalachian Coal Miners. The performance integrated interpretive movement, storytelling, body art, film, installation art, live cello accompaniment, and song to tell the story of how coal miners build community and identity in the mines and later come to terms with disabling injuries that force them to leave the mines and communities they love. The production won three year-end awards from leading regional reviewer Independent Magazine (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, NC) for Top 10 Productions, Top Five New Plays, and containing three of the Top 12 Lead Performers, including Harvey.
Hannah Harvey
