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Neda Moayerian: Researcher from Iran works to help small towns in southwest Virginia, West Virginia

The following story was written in April 2018 by Shea Hacker in ​ENGL ​4824​: Science Writing ​as part of a collaborative project that included the English department, the Center for Communicating Science, ​the ​Fralin Life Science​ Institute​, and ​Technology-enhanced Learning and Online ​Strategies (TLOS).

Throughout the country, including in southwest Virginia, small rural towns are distressed. Some are even disappearing. Globalization has resulted in increased economic competition among communities and thus, for some, severe economic decline. As job opportunities dwindle, so do populations, thus compounding the town’s economic struggles.

    Neda Moayerian, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Public and International Affairs here at Virginia Tech, is hoping to help communities in some of these towns recover. Working on an Institute of Policy and Governance (VTIPG) research team, and alongside staff from the Office of Economic Development, Moayerian searches for ways to assist two local towns: Pennington Gap, Virginia, and Montgomery, West Virginia. These two communities have very small populations, each with fewer than 2,000 people. Many of those left are seniors, as youth are rapidly migrating from each town.

    Moayerian and the research team work directly with community members who reached out to Virginia Tech for help.  The group has engaged in workshops with the residents, as well as with town officials and business owners in these jurisdictions, to help them brainstorm ways to better their quality of life. Moayerian has worked with citizens of the two towns at these gatherings to help them chart their goals and ways to achieve them. Two of their goals are to bring people back to their towns and work together as a community to problem-solve this issue.

    One often-voiced idea at these events is the need to develop a tourism industry to replace the communities’ traditional coal-centered economies, and since many of the members of these towns already have ideas of how they might better their economy, they must now work to implement it. Moayerian wants the citizens of these towns to embrace the capabilities they already possess, stating that the residents “already have their power” and “they should just become aware of it” in order to make change.

    “The thing that makes me love this research is that I really love culture, and I also really love people,” Moayerian said.

    Initially, Moayerian did not plan to undertake research in the Appalachian region when she came to Virginia Tech. She originally wanted to study a small rural town in her home country of Iran. But President Trump’s executive orders in 2017 restricted travel to Iran and other countries, and she decided to investigate community change processes in the local area. Moayerian is now working to realize the mission of Ut Prosim by working with the team seeking to help these towns. She plans to continue her work with community change efforts in the future, perhaps returning to Iran and working in international development. Currently, she has enjoyed discovering how many similarities exist between the citizens of these towns and those of her home country.

    “Although they are so different geographically, the fears and the hopes of the populations in these places are nonetheless very similar,” Moayerian said.

    Moayerian always seems to look for the best in the people with whom she works. One might imagine that coming from abroad and working in communities in which it can be hard to gain trust might make it difficult for Moayerian to pursue her research.  Indeed, she originally feared this. Instead, she has found the residents of both towns quite hospitable and cooperative.

    The most difficult part of Moayerian’s work is realizing that she cannot always help the people in the towns she studies.

    “In many cases, you can’t do anything for them, and this is the reality, that globalization is taking their jobs,” she said. “And they really love their homes. They don’t want to leave them, but that’s reality.”

    The ultimate goal of this VTIPG-led effort is to help the towns of Pennington Gap and Montgomery develop community-led strategies to address their social and economic challenges. Moayerian is striving to help residents of the two communities identify aims and processes that allow them to work to help themselves.  She hopes to continue to help citizens to address the challenges confronting their towns for the remainder of her career.