Jessica Wilkerson

Jessica Wilkerson is the Stuart and Joyce Robbins Distinguished Chair and Associate Professor of History at West Virginia University. Her research focuses on women-led social justice movements in Appalachia and the American South, particularly analyzing intersections of labor, gender, and political economy.

Education: Ph.D. in History from University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (2014), M.A. from Sarah Lawrence College (2006), B.A. from Carson Newman College (2003).

Her landmark book To Live Here, You Have to Fight (2019) examines grassroots Appalachian activism in the 1960s-70s, winning major labor history awards. Current projects include They'll Never Keep Us Down, a trans-century Appalachian women's history, and In Sisterhood, In Struggle on Southern feminist activism.

Publications span academic journals like Southern Cultures and Gender & History, alongside media contributions to NPR and Washington Post. She leads oral history initiatives including collaborations with women coal miners and the West Virginia Feminist Activist History Collection.

Awarded 2021-2023 Carnegie Fellowship and multiple best dissertation/book prizes, she also serves as senior associate editor of LABOR: Studies in Working Class History.