Dr. John Rehder
Dr. John Rehder begins his forty-third year at Tennessee (as of Fall 2009). His
research focuses on writing solo-authored scholarly books that examine the
historical and cultural geography of subjects in the South. Two earlier books,
Delta Sugar: Louisiana’s Vanishing Plantation Landscape (1999) and
Appalachian Folkways (2004) both published by the Johns Hopkins University
Press, have won prestigious book awards.
Rehder’s three new books listed below are on-going research at different stages
of completion. The book Tennessee’s Log Buildings: A Folk Tradition may
be published in 2010 by the Center for American Places. The book is now in line
for the copy-editing stage but printing costs for this book’s color photography
are a major concern and may be a delay factor.
A second book, An Architectural Guide to the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park, is a scholarly field guide with photographs, floor plans, maps, and
historical perspectives on more than eighty historic structures. The project is
well into the fieldwork and writing stages. Fieldwork in 2006 and 2007 covered
40% of the Park. Fieldwork in 2008 covered about 30% more of the Park. In March
2009, Rehder had radical prostate cancer surgery and is mending slowly. Two
areas remain to be photographed and measured but they are in remote steep
locations on Mount Cammerer and in part of Cataloochee. Since Mount Cammerer has
a vertical climb of 2,700 feet in about 6 miles on an 11 mile trek, he says “I
am not ready for this one; and at age 67, I may never be.”
The New World Plantations book project is an old resurrected project.
Rehder restarted it in May and July 2009 and it is progressing along nicely. He
conducted fieldwork and writing on Orton Plantation on the Cape Fear River near
Wilmington, North Carolina. He says that he can still do fieldwork on flat
ground. The overall project analyzes four plantation areas: a Carolina rice
plantation, A Georgia cotton plantation, two sugarcane plantations in Louisiana,
and the sugar island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean. His earlier fieldwork and
rough draft writing exist on all fronts for this unique book project.
Dr. Rehder is still active in non-academic interests in: golf, kayaking,
fishing, hiking, photography, and his two grandchildren.
Specialities: Cultural, Rural Settlement, Appalachia
Contact Information
Dr. John Rehder
Ph.D., Louisiana State Univ.
Professor
313 Burchfiel Geography Bldg.
Knoxville, TN 37996-0925
Phone: (865) 974-6038
Fax: (865) 974-6025
Email: jrehder@utk.edu