Field School Explores West Virginia’s Neglected History

Each year, the Folklore Studies Program offers a field school to teach student ethnographic research techniques. In May, students participated in an intensive residential field school in southern West Virginia. Partnering with the West Virginia Folklife Program, students started with a primer in West Virginia coal mining and labor history, then traveled to historical Matewan, West Virginia, and Logan, West Virginia, to interview union and coal mining families. Students considered issues like coal mining community culture and diversity, the environmental and economic impact of the coal industry on local communities, and the effects of industry decline. Additionally, they explored the often neglected history of the West Virginia Mine Wars in the fight for unionization in the coal fields.

Students also spent time in the state’s capital of Charleston documenting the lively music scene, including live music dance halls, or “jamborees” as they are locally referred to, and the final season of the Mountaineer Opry House, a live bluegrass venue in Milton, West Virginia.