Standing Our Ground

Joyce M. Barry is a visiting assistant professor of women's studies at Hamilton College. Her work has received support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and has appeared in such national publications as Women's Studies Quarterly, Environmental Justice, Environmental Ethics, and the National Women's Studies Association Journal. Barry grew up in West Virginia's southern coalfields, and now resides in Clinton, New York.

"What a magnificent book! The author skillfully weaves theoretical discussions into a fast-paced narrative. Standing Our Ground is well written, well researched, and on solid theoretical ground. The book offers a unique lens: coal is a highly masculinized world, and Barry opens up a view of women's roles and activism inside this world, which is often closed to outsiders." "Barry exposes the coal industry's harsh effects on working-class women in Appalachia, revealing the symbiosis between gender oppression and environmental destruction. No passive victims, the women she profiles have become leading advocates for alternative energy." (Ms. Magazine) "Standing Our Ground will appeal to a wide variety of scholars interested in intersectional analyses of social and environmental problems…at a time when so much of the climate change discourse is focused on broad solutions at the level of global environmental policy, Barry's book is a crucial look into the lives of individuals living day to day with the consequences of our lifestyle and policy choices." (Environmental Values) "(Standing Our Ground) highlights negatively stereotyped working-class white and nonwhite women in a 'gendered articulation' that speaks to diverse issues of class and disenfranchisement at a 'global crossroads' in history." (Choice) "Standing Our Ground: Women, Environmental Justice, and the Fight to End Mountaintop Removal places the anti-mountaintop removal struggle squarely as a global issue with human and environmental costs. Barry successfully illustrates how local struggles in central Appalachia are indicative of a larger global movement for environmental justice." (author of Bringing Down the Mountains: The Impact of Mountaintop Removal on Southern West Virginia Communities)