Roger Cunningham, circa 1986

Rodger Cunningham (born 1948) is a scholar of Appalachian literature and culture, and a Professor of English at Alice Lloyd College in eastern Kentucky. He completed his B.A. in English at Marshall University, followed by an M.A. (1972) and Ph.D. (1980) in Comparative Literature from Indiana University Bloomington. His most noted work is the book Apples on the Flood: The Southern Mountain Experience (1987), which earned the W.D. Weatherford Award in Appalachian Studies in 1988. His scholarship engages postcolonial critiques of the Appalachian region, analyzing how Appalachia has been represented as “othered” in American culture, and how economic colonialism, extraction and stereotype have shaped mountain identity and literature. His archival papers (manuscripts, drafts, correspondence) are held at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. (Archives Online) (Written with AI assistance, 2025)