Katrina M. Powell

Dr. Katrina M. Powell is a Professor of Rhetoric and Writing at Virginia Tech’s College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, where she serves as founding director of the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies. She teaches courses in Critical Displacement Studies, Autobiography, and Rhetorics of Social Justice.

• Research Focus: Displacement narratives, immigration, refugee education, oral history methodology, and ethics in research.
• Awards: Anthem Award for Community Engagement (2024), Land Grant Scholar Award (2024), National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship.
• Key Projects: Co-directed the $3 million Mellon-funded Monuments Across Appalachian Virginia initiative and authored Beginning Again: Stories of Movement and Migration in Appalachia (2024).
• Email: kmpowell@vt.edu

Her recent scholarly work emphasizes ethical community engagement, digital justice collaborations with displaced populations, and interdisciplinary approaches to displacement studies. Publications include analyses of testimonial inscription, transitional identity sites, and eugenics-related erasures in Appalachian history.