Sylvia Ryerson
Curriculum Vitae
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Independent Radio Producer of reports, documentaries, talk shows and special series for WMMT-FM, Kentucky Public Radio, West Virginia Public Radio and NPR’s Weekend Edition. Responsible for concept, planning, interviewing, editing, writing, narrating and engineering. 2010 - present
Director of Public Affairs, Appalshop/WMMT, Whitesburg, KY, supervised complete weekly public affairs broadcast schedule. 2012 - 2014
Interim Co-General Manager, WMMT-FM, Whitesburg, KY, co-managed all station operations, development and staff. 2012 - 2014
Producer, Calls from Home, Appalshop/WMMT, Whitesburg, KY, hosted and produced weekly program sending messages over the radio from family members to their loved ones in prison. 2011 - 2014
Music Instructor, Appalshop Traditional Music Project, Whitesburg, KY, taught fiddle lessons to elementary students in public schools across Letcher County, KY. 2011 - 2014
Co-Director and Producer, Making Connections News, Appalshop/WMMT, Whitesburg, KY, A storytelling platform and multimedia series showcasing the opportunities and challenges in building a healthy and just Appalachia. 2010 - 2014
Producer and Host, Mountain News and World Report, Appalshop/WMMT, Whitesburg, KY, a bi-weekly half-hour news and public affairs show on life in Central Appalachia. 2010 - 2014
Director, Appalshop Traditional Music Project, Whitesburg, KY, coordinated student concerts, community events, jam sessions and fundraising efforts. 2012 - 2013
Youth Media Trainer, Appalachian Media Institute, Whitesburg, KY, taught high school students the techniques of sound recording, editing and audio documentary production. 2010 - 2011
Director, Community Correspondents Corps, Appalshop/WMMT, Whitesburg, KY, trained volunteer citizen journalists in the techniques of sound recording, editing and radio production. 2010 - 2011
AWARDS/GRANTS/FELLOWSHIPS
Special Friend Award, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, for thoughtful coverage of Appalachian economic transition. 2014
E-Chievement Award, eTown, 2014
Recipient, The Chorus Foundation Grant, 2014
Recipient, Blue Moon Fund Grant, 2013 - 2014
Recipient, Appalachian Community Fund Grant, 2012 - 2014
Recipient, Appalshop Endowment Award, 2010 - 2014
Gladys Maynard “The Start of Something Big” Award, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, presented to the member whose commitment and action leads to the development of a major movement or event in the cause of justice. 2013
Recipient, Paul Robeson Fund for Independent Media Grant, 2009
Gwen Livingston Pokora Prize, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, for outstanding undergraduate student in music composition. 2009
M.G. White Prize, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, for best thesis in American Studies. 2009
Dean’s List, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 2005 - 2009
Olin Fellowship, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 2008
Davenport Summer Study Grant, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, 2008
AUDIO WORKS selected
2014
Remembering the Miners at Upper Big Branch
Eula Hall Fights for Mud Creek Medicine
SOAR Takes Off
East Kentucky Schools “Race to the Top”
Welsh Eco-Tourism Model Excites Elkhorn City
Appalachian Food Summit a Success
2013
A Clothesline of Quilts
The Stickneys of Estill County: Landowners are the Best Fertilizer
Connection Lost – Youth Perspectives on Broadband in Appalachia
SOAR: What Happens Next?
Building Businesses with Bee-Keeping and Paintballs
Forests for the Future – The Appalachian Carbon Partnership
Building Appalachia’s Bright Future
After Coal: Wales & Appalachia
The Future of Landline Service in Kentucky
The Town Too Tough to Die – Vicco Leads Kentucky Towards LGBTQ Fairness
2012
Like a Car Settin’ on Blocks – Broadband in Appalachia
White Oak Pumpkin Barn
Laid Off and Looking for Answers
A Morgan Sorghum Success!
Mining Communities in Times of Change
Safe Haven for Injured Birds of Prey
Planning for Planting
Goods from the Woods
HowSmart KY – Efficient Energy for Everyone
2011
More Than Mail – Rural Postal Service Threatened
School Consolidation in the County
A Marvelous Herb – the Value of Ramp Cultivation
Prison Progress? (3 part hour-long Radio Documentary)
Getting Ahead Online – Education and the Internet
Sweet Corn and Fresh Ideas
Be Smart, Live Simple – The Colletts of Leslie County
2010
Home-Scale Renewable Energy
Conversations on the Porch
The Avian Aqua Miser: An Automatic Chicken Waterer
Growing Appalachia: Moving Forward in the Mountains
Historical Marker for the Scotia Mine Disaster of 1976
PERFORMANCES/RECORDINGS/SOUND INSTALLATIONS
Appalachia in the Bluegrass Traditional Music Series, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, performer of traditional Appalachian fiddle music. 2014
Lexington Loves Mountains, Lexington, KY, performer with Rich & the Po’ Folk and the Skipdippers. 2012 - 2013
Appalshop Seedtime on The Cumberland Festival, Whitesburg, KY, performer with Rich & the Po’ Folk and the Skipdippers. 2012 - 2013
Railroad Traditions, Big Sandy Community and Technical College, Prestonsburg, KY, sound installation with visual artist Pam Oldfield Meade. 2010
Trillium R: Shala Fears for The Poor, Brooklyn, NY, studio musician for recording by Anthony Braxton. 2009
Four Holding Six Holding Four, Middletown, CT, composed string quartet selected by Alvin Lucier as one of two undergraduate compositions to be performed by FLUX quartet. 2009
Prison Progress? Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, multimedia sound installation and performance piece. 2009
PRESENTATIONS/PANELS
Appalshop: Arts & Culture in Times of Economic Transition, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 2014
Popular Education: Prison Expansion in Central Appalachia, Appalachian Studies Conference, Huntington, WV, 2014
Mass Incarceration and Resistance in Central Appalachia, Berea College, Berea, KY, 2013
Journalists' Perspectives on Appalachian Transition, Appalachia’s Bright Future Conference, Harlan, KY, 2014
Getting to the Climate Problem and Solutions: Working on the Ground and with Communities, National Rural Assembly, Bethesda, MD, 2013
Mass Incarceration in the Coalfields: How Prison Expansion is Impacting Appalachian Communities and What We Can Do About It, Appalachian Studies Conference, Boone, NC, 2013
Appalshop Media in Times of Transition: Documenting the Moment and Engaging Residents in
Conversations for the Future, Appalachian Studies Conference, Indiana, PA, 2012
Prison Progress…? Mass Incarceration in the Coalfields, Appalachian Studies Conference, Richmond, VA 2011
EDUCATION
Yale University, PhD in American Studies, with a Master’s Concentration in the Public Humanities: Documentary Studies, expected graduation 2024
Audio Documentary Summer Institute, Duke Center for Documentary Studies, Durham, NC, intensive course in recording, digital audio mixing, and the ethics of documentary work. 2013
Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, Bachelor of Arts; Double major: Music and American Studies High Honors 2009
MEMBERSHIPS
Advisory Board Member for the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky/Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) project toward ending mass incarceration; Advisor to Appalshop/WMMT’s Calls from Home show and ongoing media work against incarceration in the coalfields; founding member of the Racial Capitalism and the Carceral State working group at Yale; member of the Critical Prison Studies (CPS) caucus of the American Studies Association; founding member of the Central Appalachian Prisoner Support Network (CAPSN); former member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC).