The conference is sponsored by the Coal and Coke Heritage Center at The Pennsylvania State University’s Fayette Campus and supported by a grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Papers from all disciplinary perspectives (history, labor history, oral history, literature, American studies, African-American studies, sociology, folklore, etc.) are welcome. Graduate students are encouraged to participate, as are independent scholars and amateur historians.

Presentations should be 20-30 minutes in length, and conference participants will be strongly urged to present their subjects in conversational form rather than reading a written text.

Preference will be given to papers with demonstrable relevance to the bituminous coal culture of southwestern Pennsylvania and surrounding areas. However, proposals on all relevant topics and approaches are welcomed.

Paper topics might include: Experiences of African-American miners and their families; Histories of race and ethnicity in bituminous coal fields and towns; Ethnic divisions of labor in the mines and related industries; Race and ethnicity in mining and labor histories; Microhistories of mining families, organizations, or towns; Oral histories, folk histories, biographies, or family genealogies; Folk cultures and institutions in southwestern Pennsylvania; Segregation, desegregation, or multiculturalism in industries and communities; Pop culture representations of race and/or ethnicity in mining regions; Mining literature and lore; Relevant issues in African-American historiography.

Email proposals or inquiries preferred. Send proposals of 250 words or less by September 1, 2006 to:

Gib Prettyman
Associate Professor of English
Penn State Fayette
P.O. Box 519
Uniontown, PA 15401
cgp3@psu.edu