Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Archiving After Coal: the role of regional archives in economic transition and cultural exchange
Session Abstract or Summary
This panel will use the After Coal project as a case study to explore the role regional archives can play in engaging and inspiring coalfield communities to create a sustainable future. Panelists will discuss lessons learned and issues that have risen out of four decades of exchange between coal mining communities in central Appalachia and south Wales.
The After Coal project profiles inspiring individuals striving to create sustainable communities in the coalfields of eastern Kentucky and South Wales. The project builds on the historic exchange initiated by Appalachian scholars Helen Lewis and John Gaventa in 1974, and continued through a long-term friendship between Welsh labor historian Hywel Francis and Pat Beaver, the director of the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University. After Coal includes a face-to-face cultural exchange, a documentary film, and a book published by West Virginia University Press in 2018.
Panelists will approach this topic from three different perspectives. Filmmaker and author author Tom Hansell will discuss how resources from regional archives supported his work in two continents. Sian Williams, Head of Research Collections at Swansea University in Wales will provide an overview of the South Wales Miners library, highlighting its role supporting this exchange. Trevor McKenzie, an archives specialist at Appalachian State University will share materials that the W.L Eury Appalachian Collection preserved from forty-five years of exchange between Appalachia and Wales.
A question and answer session will allow audience members to discuss their own experiences using archives to engage communities and create sustainable solutions.
Presentation #1 Title
Memory and Coalfield Regeneration
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Filmmaker and author Tom Hansell will open the panel by providing historic context for the exchange. After providing a brief background of the Welsh - Appalachian coalfield exchange that started in 1974, Hansell will discuss how archival material presented during a 2010 symposium at Appalachian State University inspired the After Coal project.
During his presentation, Hansell will provide specific examples of how resources from regional archives, including the South Wales Miners Library at Swansea University and the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection at Appalachian State University have supported his work. He will illustrate his presentation with a short clip from the After Coal documentary. Hansell’s presentation will highlight how regional archives serve to preserve community memory, and how this collective memory is essential to engaging communities to create a sustainable future.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Tom Hansell, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, is the author of After Coal: Stories of Survival in Appalachia and Wales, published by West Virginia University Press. It is a companion volume to his 2016 film of the same name. Hansell’s work has been broadcast on public television and screened at international film festivals. He began his career at the Appalshop media arts center, and currently serves as associate professor in Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University.
Presentation #2 Title
The South Wales Miners' Library and International Exchange
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
Siân Williams, Head of Research Collections at Swansea University in Wales, will discuss her work at the South Wales Miners’ Library, highlighting how this institution has supported both local communities and international exchange.
Williams will provide a historic overview of the South Wales Miners’ Library, explaining how it was established in 1973 to house material collected by the Social Science Research Council sponsored Coalfield History Project. The project’s aim was to collect all manner of historical material, including book collections from miners’ institute and welfare hall libraries, union banners, posters and oral history testimonies, which were endangered as a result of the rapid contraction of the coal industry in south Wales in the 1960s. The central aim of the South Wales Miners’ Library has always been to keep the spirit of the old miners’ institute and welfare hall libraries alive while providing access to material collected by the Coalfield History project (and subsequent deposits) for teaching, learning, research and widening participation purposes.
Her presentation will highlight how South Wales Miners’ Library founder Hywel Francis supported the exchange by hosting Appalachian Scholars John Gaventa and Helen Lewis in the 1970s. She will provide a brief overview of materials in the Library, share an excerpt from the book “Do Miners Read Dickens?” that she co-authored with Hywel Francis, and explain how international exchanges can inspire institutions to develop innovative solutions to engage with former coalfield communities.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Siân Williams is Head of Research Collections at Swansea University, where she manages the South Wales Miners’ Library and the Richard Burton Archives. She has led or contributed to numerous successful externally funded projects, including digitisation projects and community based exhibitions, collaborating with community organisations and museum, library and archive professionals. In 2013, she co-authored with Hywel Francis, ‘Do Miners Read Dickens? Origins and Progress of the South Wales Miners’ Library 1973-2013’, which was published by Parthian.
Siân is co-chair of the Wales Higher Education Libraries Forum Archives & Special Collections Group; a Trustee of the Paul Robeson Wales Trust; and Secretary of Llafur: the Welsh People’s History Society.
Presentation #3 Title
Archives, Activism, and International Exchange
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
Trevor McKenzie, an archives specialist at Appalachian State University (and an accomplished traditional musician) will share how the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection has supported regional activism and scholarship.
McKenzie will start the presentation with an overview of the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection, which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018. He will then then focus specifically on materials from the Welsh exchange, sharing some of the material created between 1974 and 1976 by Appalachian scholars Helen Lewis, John Gaventa, and Welsh cinematographer Richard Greatrex during their time in Wales. This presentation will also include photos from a delegation of Welsh miners who visited coal mines in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky in 1979. To conclude his presentation, McKenzie will discuss his role traveling to Wales, meeting the people who produced the above archival collections, and performing music as part of an exchange in 2016.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Trevor McKenzie is an archives specialist in the W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection at Appalachian State University. He is also an accomplished traditional musician whose music has been featured on the album Big Bend Killing: The Appalachian Ballad Tradition (2017) as well as on the soundtracks of Tom Hansell’s After Coal (2016) and the upcoming independent feature The Mountain Minor (2018).
Memory and Coalfield Regeneration
Filmmaker and author Tom Hansell will open the panel by providing historic context for the exchange. After providing a brief background of the Welsh - Appalachian coalfield exchange that started in 1974, Hansell will discuss how archival material presented during a 2010 symposium at Appalachian State University inspired the After Coal project.
During his presentation, Hansell will provide specific examples of how resources from regional archives, including the South Wales Miners Library at Swansea University and the W.L. Eury Appalachian Collection at Appalachian State University have supported his work. He will illustrate his presentation with a short clip from the After Coal documentary. Hansell’s presentation will highlight how regional archives serve to preserve community memory, and how this collective memory is essential to engaging communities to create a sustainable future.
