Katrina M. Powell

Katrina M. Powell, founding director of the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies, is a professor of rhetoric and writing in the Department of English.

She teaches courses in Critical Displacement Studies, Autobiography, Rhetorics of Social Justice, and Research Methodologies.

Katrina M. Powell is Professor of English and founding director of the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies at Virginia Tech. She has published seven books and numerous articles about displacement narratives, autobiography, ethics in research methodology, and oral history. Her recent book, Beginning Again: Stories of Movement and Migration in Appalachia (Haymarket Books 2024) was funded by a Voice of Witness Book Fellowship. Her two books about the displacement of families from Shenandoah National Park were funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship). With Emily Satterwhite, she serves as the co-director of Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia, a $3 million award from the Mellon Foundation to create monuments that focus on migration, mobility, and little known stories in the region.