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Call for Papers AAG, New Orleans, April 10-14, 2018 Engaging Rural Publics sponsored by the Rural Geography Specialty Group Organizers: Cheryl Morse (University of Vermont) and Karin Patzke (SUNY-ESF) A recent intervention in the radical geography community calls for geographers to "engage more substantively with the politics of rural and working-class whiteness" (Van Sant and Bosworth 2017) in an effort to abolish the rise of white supremacy and settler colonialism in contemporary US politics. Others, such as Daniel Lichter (2012) have called on rural social scientists to attend to the increasing racial and ethnic diversity of rural America. These appeals, it seems to us, ask scholars to reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of past work in rural geography and initiate new and effective forms of rural public engagement and research. This kind of engagement reveals the dynamic relationships many rural geographers have with rural publics: that of being both researcher of and participant in marginalized communities (Woods 2010). Rural public engagement draws on a diverse skill set composed of cultural competences to both speak to and belong in diverse rural communities. At its best, rural public engagement forges creative partnerships and translates academic research from novel insights to collaborations that resonate and attempt to address the concerns of rural constituents. Importantly, this work recognizes the diversity and marginality that exists within rural publics. For this session on Engaging Rural Publics, we seek contributions – both case studies and theoretical papers – that focus on the practice of working alongside community members to develop deeper understanding of rural conditions and to develop effective models for co-creating solutions to persistent problems. Licther, Daniel. 2012. “Immigration and the New Racial Diversity in Rural America.” Rural Sociology. 77 (1): 3-35. Van Sant, Levi and Kai Bosworth. 2017. “Race, Rurality, and Radical Geography in the US.” Interventions. The Antipode Foundation. https://antipodefoundation.org/2017/09/14/race-rurality-and-radical-geography/ Woods, Michael. "Performing rurality and practising rural geography." Progress in Human Geography 34, no. 6 (2010): 835-846. Please send a title and abstract (no more than 250 words) to Cheryl Morse ([log in to unmask]) by October 20, 2017. We will respond by October 23, 2017.