Christabel Devadoss

“Rust Belt Representation: Race, Rurality, and Everyday Experiences” examines experiences of Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) in rural Rust Belt communities. It argues that dominant representations of rural Rust Belt communities prioritize “white working class” narratives, historically influenced by settler colonial discourses, that ignore or minimize BIPOC in such spaces. Drawing primarily from in-depth interviews and landscape analysis in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, this project challenges settler colonial discourses of US rurality as white, providing a more inclusive narrative of everyday life in the rural Rust Belt.