South Dakota
Mines instructor of humanities Bryce Tellmann, Ph.D., is one of 10 university
faculty in the nation invited to join a new cohort of rural scholars at Tarleton
State University’s Rural Communication Institute. The cohort is focusing on the
future of rural areas and development of best practices for communicating with
individuals in rural places.
“Place matters, but in today’s world geography can
seem like a thing of the past, so it’s easy to become placeless. Out here in
grassland landscapes people sometimes think of us as living nowhere. But the
idea that rural areas have great value is vital for those of us in these places
to remember when it comes to our ability to imagine what we can be,” says
Tellmann.
Tellmann is a rhetorical scholar who examines
language and discourse in and about rural regions. His expertise is on the
Great Plains. “Rural America faces challenges that are sometimes very long and
intractable. My research examines the idea that how a place sees itself can help
define what opportunities it can create for itself,” Tellmann says.
Tellmann’s examination of the language around rural
areas can lend insight to the potential for growth and advancement of rural
America. He grew up on the open prairie of North Dakota and witnessed
challenges like shrinking communities, land-use questions and the struggle to
keep young people from migrating elsewhere.
“Rural folks are good at identifying the assets of a
certain area–strong work ethic is an example of something many rural Americans
pride themselves in. I am interested in seeing how that narrative works and how
rural communities can use it to find success,” says Tellmann.
Tellmann adds that rural communities can find ways
to measure their own success that might not be defined as population growth or
economic development. The quality of life, the natural beauty, the solace of
open space and other attributes hold great value to many Americans. “It’s not
about elevating or protecting ourselves from urban people who ‘don’t get it,’
it’s also about rural people recognizing the great value in their own
backyards.”
Tellmann says one pitfall is that many assume that
all rural areas are the same. He says solutions to challenges in rural places
require a local approach and understanding of each community and region.
“So often we talk about ‘rural’ as one thing, but we
are pretty hard pressed to define it. Rural Appalachia is very different than
rural South Dakota, for example,” Tellmann says.
Tellmann goes on to say that many political
differences between urban and rural areas are real but too often overstated.
“We would so rarely group together Seattle, New York,
and LA and make a blanket statement about them. These are each unique cities
with their own attributes. In the same way, there is a great deal of complexity
in what differentiates different rural areas. The simple dichotomy, popularized
by many voices in the media, that separates urban and rural areas doesn’t
capture who we are in these areas,” says Tellmann.
Tellmann says, like
all communities, rural areas will always have challenges to overcome. Political
divides, questions of indigenous sovereignty, land development, environmental
protection, water resources, mining, tourism, recreation, agriculture, job
shortages, and much more are all issues rural communities grapple with. “There
is no path out of these tensions – it’s a matter of how we embrace and manage
them and communicate over them going forward,” says Tellmann.