Northern Appalachian Folk Festival Founder and President, James P. Dougherty, has passed away, leaving behind a legacy of scholarship and service.
Born and raised in Bigler, Pennsylvania, in rural Clearfield County, Jim earned degrees from Clarion University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania before completing his PhD at SUNY Buffalo.
Jim began teaching sociology at IUP in 1979, producing documentaries, editing books, and presenting at conferences nationwide. He organized oral history and ethnography field schools, documenting coal mining communities. As a historian and ethnographer for the National Park Service, he secured $120,000 in grants for educational programs. Additionally, Jim’s passion for social justice extended to teaching incarcerated students in New York.
Among his many accomplishments, he founded IUP’s Center for Northern Appalachian Studies in 2007, chaired the Appalachian Studies Association’s national conference in 2012, acted as the faculty advisor for the student group “IUP Voices For Peace,” and helped launch the NAFF in 2013.
An inexhaustible champion for working-class culture Jim’s research focused on globalization, social change, and Appalachian life. Even as he succumbed to debilitating osteoporosis in his final years, Jim was a dedicated advocate for the history, arts, and culture of the oft-overlooked region he called home.
Appalachia has suffered a tremendous loss with his death.
Sadly, Jim is not the only NAFF, Inc. family member who has passed away this year. We also mourn the loss of Beth Ann Krug, who, in the few short years she lived in Indiana, worked tirelessly to improve the community and uplift marginalized voices.
Our deepest condolences to both Jim's and Beth Ann's families, friends, colleagues, and all the lives they each touched.
Comments