Shannon Bell
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Shannon Bell is a Professor of Sociology and an environmental sociologist whose community-based research and extension activities are based primarily in Central Appalachia. Professor Bell leads the Forest Botanicals Region Social Ecology Lab, which conducts research and outreach to support the traditions, lifeways, and livelihoods connecting Central Appalachian people to the medicinal herbs and wild foods of the forest understory.
Recent and ongoing projects include an ethnography of Appalachian wild harvesting traditions and economies, an examination of inequities in the Appalachian wild-harvested herbal supply chain, and leading the creation of the Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument, which celebrates the historical and present-day relationships and traditions that a diversity of Appalachian people have long held with forest medicines and foods.
Professor Bell’s scholarly contributions have been recognized through a variety of awards, including the Virginia Tech Niles Land Grant Scholar Award, the Rural Sociological Society’s Excellence in Research Award, the Environmental Sociology Practice and Outreach Award, the Society for Human Ecology’s Gerald L. Young Book Award, the Association for Humanist Sociology Book Award, and the Robert Boguslaw Award for Technology and Humanism. At Virginia Tech, Professor Bell is a member of the steering committee for the Biocultural and Ecological Restoration Initiative, and she is a faculty affiliate of the Appalachian Studies Program, the Global Change Center, and the Invasive Species Collaborative.
Education
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Oregon
Professor Bell is currently working on a number of agroforestry-related research and extension projects, including:
- The Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument
This public humanities initiative was created in collaboration with Appalachian Sustainable Development; the City of Norton, Virginia; community-based forest botanicals practitioners; and with funding from the Mellon Foundation-sponsored Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia program. Featuring a storywalk trail of 11 interpretive signs, a sculpture, a demonstration wild-simulated forest garden, and an online exhibit, this monument honors the cultural, historical, medicinal, ecological, and economic importance that Appalachian forest botanicals have long held for a diversity of people, stretching from before colonization to today. Through a recently awarded Virginia Humanities grant, Professor Bell and her collaborators are expanding educational programing for the monument through an in-person workshop series at the High Knob Destination Center, a community-based oral history project, a video series for the monument’s online exhibit, and a traveling storywalk exhibit. Learn more about the Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument. - Addressing Inequities in the Wild-Harvested Herbal Supply Chain
With support from an Appalachian Collegiate Research Initiative grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, Professor Bell led students in her Fall 2022 Appalachian Community Research class on an investigation of the causes of, and potential pathways for addressing, inequities in the wild-harvested herbal supply chain. This research has continued with funding from the Institute for Society, Culture, and Environment (ISCE) at Virginia Tech and an Appalachian Regional Commission ARISE Planning Grant. Learn more. - Supporting Forest Botanicals Cultivation Uptake among Wild Stewards
Professor Bell supports the work of the Wild Stewards Alliance, which is led by Professor John Munsell and Appalachian Sustainable Development, by assisting low-income wild harvesters with an interest in cultivation secure resources and training to begin forest botanicals cultivation on land they own or to which they have access via family or friend networks. Future initiatives will include facilitating long-term leases for those without secure land access.
Bell, Shannon Elizabeth. Forthcoming. “The Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument: Transforming Perceptions of the Appalachian ‘Coalfields.’” In Katrina M. Powell, Emily Satterwhite, Jacob E. Robinson, Sarah Plummer, Meranda Flachs-Surmanek, Marti Wagnon, Amber Wendler, and Lauren Trice (Eds.) Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia: Reimagining Place, Identity, and Mobility. University of Virginia Press.
Bell, Shannon Elizabeth. 2024. Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument Online Exhibit. Virginia Tech Publishing. https://forestbotanicalsregion.vt.domains/exhibits/show/online-exhibit
Bell, Shannon Elizabeth with Ruby Daniels, Victoria Persinger Ferguson, Ryan Huish, and Nathan Wachacha David Bush. 2024. Forest Botanicals Region Living Monument Storywalk Trail [Permanent installation]. Eleven interpretive signs on a wooded trail in Norton, Virginia documenting Central Appalachian people’s history of stewardship, cultivation, and use of the medicinal herbs and wild foods of the region’s forests.
Ferguson, Victoria Persinger and Shannon Elizabeth Bell. 2023. “Beyond ‘Hunting Grounds’: Eastern Siouan-Speaking People and Land Stewardship in Southwest Virginia.” Southwest Virginia Native Plant Guide, New River Valley Regional Commission, p. 6. Also published on the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s Plant Virginia Natives Campaign website: https://www.plantvirginianatives.org/plantswvanatives/indigenousknowledge
Shannon Elizabeth Bell and Victoria Persinger Ferguson. 2023. “The History, Culture, and Conservation of At-Risk Native Forest Botanicals in Southwest Virginia.” Plant Native Southwest Virginia, Plant Virginia Natives Campaign website, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. https://www.plantvirginianatives.org/plantswvanatives/indigenousknowledge