Katrina Powell honored as Alumni Distinguished Professor

The first time Katrina Powell visited Virginia Tech in 2006, she knew she found where she was meant to be.

“I just remember driving away,” she said. “It was late afternoon and the sun was setting behind me and shining into my rearview mirror. And I just remember having this chilling – in a good way – feeling of I really want to be here.”

In the nearly 20 years since, Powell, professor of rhetoric and writing in the Department of English and founding director of the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies, has strived to bring awareness to issues of social justice and displacement through her teaching and her research.

The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors appointed Powell an Alumni Distinguished Professor during its March meeting. The 10-year appointment recognizes faculty members who demonstrate extraordinary accomplishments and academic work across teaching, research or creative activity, and engagement.

“Her career demonstrates an exceptional commitment to serving local and global communities while also advancing scholarly knowledge and preparing students to address complex societal challenges,” Kelly Pender, professor and chair of the Department of English, wrote in her nomination of Powell for the award.

Powell teaches courses in critical displacement studies, autobiography, rhetorics of social justice, and research methodologies. She has published numerous articles and multiple books, including two about the displacement of families from Shenandoah National Park, which were funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. Powell’s latest book “Beginning Again: Stories of Movement and Migration in Appalachia” was published last year.

Powell, who grew up rural in Madison County, Virginia, said she didn’t always feel well prepared for college. She works to make sure that that isn’t the case for her students.

“I feel really passionate about helping students navigate the university,” she said. “Sometimes that means trying to help them figure out how to read a scholarly article, or how to write in an academic way.”

Part of teaching rhetoric, she said, is making sure students understand problems from multiple angles so that they can make their own informed decisions.

“Often people assume that rhetoric is basically how to write an argument,” she said. “And that's true, but it is much more complicated than that. It’s understanding problems and then persuading an audience to act on a solution or idea or value.”

In all of her classes, she makes an effort to get to know her students.

“If they want to be an engineer or they want to be a chemist, or they want to be an employer and own a business, I ask what are the kinds of things that they will be writing?” she said. “I try to figure out what their goals are as students. And how can I help them get to that place.”

Because Powell’s classes often examine narratives of injustice, she also hopes her students leave with an understanding that displacement, which is the forced movement of people from their homes due to conflict, persecution, natural disasters, and more, is a worldwide issue that people should mitigate.

One of the most rewarding parts of her career, she said, is watching her former students succeed.

“I keep up with where they are and what they’re doing,” she said. “One of the best parts of the job is to see them get to where they wanted to be.”

Another rewarding moment for Powell came in 2020 with the opening of the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies with co-founders Georgeta Pourchot, professor Brett Shadle, and associate professor Rebecca Hester. The center provides research opportunities for students and faculty to help find solutions to multiple kinds of forced relocation, working closely with communities locally and globally.

“We knew that there were faculty all over the university doing this kind of work, but having a central place to study those issues together and think about those issues from multiple perspectives has been really valuable,” Powell said.

Powell also serves as the co-director of Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia. The project is funded by a $3 million Mellon Foundation grant, and is focused on creating monuments that highlight histories of people in the region whose stories have been silenced or excluded.

Through the project, Powell and Emily Satterwhite, professor and co-founder, are leading efforts to recognize nine projects across the region. Most recently, they unveiled the Yesá:sahį Language and Sacred Places Project in Lawrenceville, Virginia, to honor Indigenous community-led efforts to revitalize the Monacan/Tutelo/Saponi language.

“It’s really been a powerful way for the university to work with communities to honor complex histories,” Powell said.

She said her passion for social justice stems from her parents. Her father was a lawyer, and her mother was a social worker.

“It was just part of growing up to work in the community and figure out ways to find resources to help other people,” she said.

Going forward, she said she feels inspired to continue her work and serve her community.

“It was great to come to a place like Virginia Tech where the land grant university mission and the Ut Prosim motto aligned so well with what I felt like I was trying to do in my own work,” she said. “I feel like I have so much left to do. This recognition really fuels my desire to keep doing that work and see what else I can do to help students get to where they want to be.”