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Hamilton junior Shauna Sweet will give a lecture, "Stories You Tell, and Stories You Don't: Identity on the Appalachian Trail," on Wednesday, Nov. 28 at 7 p.m. in the Red Pit (KJ 109). Her research was funded by the Bristol and Schambach Scholars Program, which awards research grants to students who have Bristol or Schambach scholarships.

She describes her talk as follows:  "Along the journey between the northern and southern termini of the Appalachian Trail, these civil engineers, bankers, retired army officers, graduate students, internet technology gurus, and fitness instructors all become thru-hikers. What does it mean to become a thru-hiker? From the moment you step onto the Trail, you call yourself a thru-hiker; chances are you've never hiked a day in your life - except for that weekend backpacking trip you took to test out your stove and set up your tent once or twice. 2,168.1 miles later, you're a thru-hiker; you don't carry your tent anymore, and your stove is a tuna can and cotton balls.

"Being a thru-hiker is not something you can achieve without walking the miles, but it's more than just the miles under your boots. Becoming a thru-hiker is a collective process of identity construction and 'naturework;' central to this process of  becoming is the telling of stories. On the Appalachian Trail as a thru-hiker, there are stories you tell, and there are stories you don't. Looking closer at those dramatic narratives reveals carefully crafted tales rich with meaning that are creating a collective identity through the re-telling of experience.

"The importance of storytelling is something that came to me largely by accident, when I realized that my hiking partner and had told the same stories about our own hike at least 7 or 8 times. We knew the stories word for word, and they always got better with each telling. They were stories about eating 7 plates of Chinese food in an hour, thinking there was a bowling ball on a mountain, seeing a 'gorilla' in New Hampshire, and about the 'miles we pulled.' What was it about these stories? And looking back at my Trail experience, I know that who we were as thru-hikers, and who I was, and who I am as a thru-hiker is contained in those stories that I told. "

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