College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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Item Radical Hope: Re-Contextualizing Oral Histories from Deindustrialized Mining Communities(International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2024) Paul A. ShackelThe anthracite coal mining landscape of northeastern Pennsylvania is in ruin, a by-product of two centuries of unchecked capitalism. Much of the land is stripped of its timber and surface mines lay abandoned. The industry began its decline after WWI and virtually collapsed during the post-WWII era. Waste piles of coal litter the landscape, and the streams and rivers are considered dead because of the minerals and high acid content of water draining from abandoned mines. Many scholars have written about the extreme work conditions the coal workers faced, the demise of the coal industry, and the impact of deindustrialization on the region’s people. Often overlooked is how members of the mining communities had a radical hope. Radical hope helps oppressed people to see that another condition and another world is possible, although not guaranteed. Re-examining oral histories from the anthracite region recorded in the 1970s, when the industry was in its great decline, demonstrates how these mining communities anticipated a future good, understanding the struggle to attain it.Item Introduction: The Past Made Public(Oxford University Press, 2022) Paul A. ShackelItem Past and Present: Immigration and Museum Exhibitions in the Anthracite Coal Region(Museum Anthropology, 2024) Aryn Neurock Schriner; Paul A. Shackel; AuthorsNortheastern Pennsylvania was home to the anthracite coal industry for about two centuries. The area was originally settled by various waves of immigrants, first from Western, then Southern and Eastern Europe. The new immigrant miners faced many forms of prejudice and were exploited in a system of unchecked capitalism. They were racialized and placed at the bottom of the job hierarchy. Some capitalists did not consider them human and, therefore, not deserving of safe working conditions, decent housing, and equal pay. At the turn of the twenty-first century, a new wave of Hispanic immigrants from the Caribbean, Mexico, and South and Central America entered the region to work mainly in low-paying fulfillment center jobs. Their arrival is being met with various forms of xenophobia, much like the immigrant miners faced over a century ago. The online exhibition “We Are Anthracite,” hosted by the Anthracite Heritage Museum, addresses the call from the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) for museums to be civically engaged, build social capital and connecting new populations to place. The exhibition bridges the experiences between the past coal mining communities and new Hispanic immigrants. The state operated museum hosting this exhibition lends validity to the new immigrants’ place in this region, creating a narrative that their experiences are similar to the region’s inhabitants’ ancestors. By connecting common experiences, past and present, we are creating a form of bridging social capital that connects these different populations. While the northeastern Pennsylvania immigrant story is not well-known, it is rich and complex, like many Rust Belt communities undergoing similar major demographic shifts.Item Anthracite Memories: Semantic Tagging and Coal Mining Oral Histories(2023) Paul A. ShackelOral histories are a critical source of information about lived experiences of past events. They have been analyzed both for their form – linguistically as texts, performances, and expressive accounts – and their content for understanding historic events and personal experiences. Here we focus on sentiment analysis approaches frequently applied to big data research questions, but less often utilized by anthropologists working with oral histories. Oral histories collected half a century ago in the anthracite mining communities of northeastern Pennsylvania are examined by considering methodological and historical questions. This project explores how oral history and data science might be productively combined to understand these now historic communities' everyday lives and working conditions. Bakhtin's (1981) concept of chronotope helps us understand the memory of these anthracite coal mining communities' daily life and working conditions.Item Remembering Labor Conflict as an American Battlefield(George Wright Sociey, 2023-09-15) Paul A. Shackel; AuthorAnthracite coal extraction developed in northeastern Pennsylvania during the late 18th century, and through the early 20th century the industry was supported by new waves of immigration. New immigrant workers faced various forms of structural racism, often being underpaid, assigned the toughest jobs, and provided substandard housing. In 1897, as 400 men marched on a public road with the goal of closing a company mine, a sheriff and his posse fired upon them, killing 19. An additional six men died a few days later of gunshot wounds. While the incident, known as the Lattimer Massacre, was noted as one of the most tragic labor strikes in US history, the event faded from national public memory within a few decades. A type of historical amnesia settled in until 75 years later when the community and labor organizations erected a memorial near the site. Although annual commemorations are now held at the site, the Lattimer Massacre remains absent from textbooks and it is still not part of national public memory. Over the past two decades, as the Hispanic population has increased significantly in northeastern Pennsylvania, so, too, have anti-immigrant attitudes increased in the US. Now more than ever we need to remember the history of racism and xenophobia directed at immigrant laborersItem The Toxic Anthracite = Toxic Heritage(Taylor & Francis, 2023-07-17) Paul A. ShackelThe anthracite coal industry in northeastern Pennsylvania developed in the late eighteenth century and helped ignite the industrial revolution in the following century. The industry reached its peak during the WWI era and then began its slow, long, precipitous decline. Open-pit and underground mining impacted a large portion of the region, scarring vast swaths of landscapes. The ground waters that flow into tributaries and rivers are poisoned with high levels of metals and high acid content. While much of the region is being slowly depopulated, the area has found different and conflicting ways to remember this toxic heritage. Early forms of nostalgia focus on the once-powerful industry. More recent forms of nostalgia highlight the struggles of the working class to survive. Other forms focus on remembering how exploited workers rebelled against capital. The toxic anthracite has led to different forms of toxic heritage.