Professor Andrew Stuhl of the Environmental Studies Program asked his students to complete a Place Paper in his American Environmental History course. The assignment they completed was called a “Place Paper,” wherein they selected a place of importance to them and narrated its environmental history. The three papers here concern the town of Shamokin; the “ghost town” of Alvira, PA; and the Danbury Mall in Connecticut. They are all very good in their own ways. These papers give readers insight into one way of studying place from a historical and environmental perspective.
Tag: environmental history
Coal
Noon Lecture Series: Immigrant Experiences of the Anthracite Coal Region
Tuesday, March 28, noon, Weis Center Atrium Lobby, free
Nicholas Kupensky, former Bucknell visiting professor of comparative humanities, and Bode Morin, site administrator of the Pennsylvania Anthracite Heritage Museum and Iron Furnaces, will discuss ways in which we can discover and share the physical and cultural stories of immigrant hard-coal mining experiences.
Noon Lecture Series: Pennsylvania's Anthracite Coal Region: Present to Future
Thursday, March 30, noon, Weis Center Atrium Lobby, free
Carol Parenzan of the Middle Susquehanna Riverkeeper Association and Maureen Hauck of the Bucknell University Small Business Development Center — both of whom have significant connections to Pennsylvania's anthracite coal region — will discuss present and future prospects for the region.
Noon Lecture Series: The Creation of Anthracite Fields
Friday, March 31, noon, Weis Center Atrium Lobby, free
Professor G.C. Waldrep, English, will interview Julia Wolfe, composer of Anthracite Fields; Laurie McCants, Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble and advisor to the project; and Professor Beth Willer, music, who will conduct the upcoming Weis Center performance.
Weis Center Performance: Anthracite Fields
Performed by Bang on a Can All-Stars, featuring Bucknell University Camerata
Saturday, April 1, 7:30 p.m., Weis Center, tickets required
Haunting, poignant and relentlessly physical, Julia Wolfe's Anthracite Fields is a lovingly detailed oratorio about turn-of-the-20th-century Pennsylvania coal miners, and a fitting recipient of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music.
Adults: $25, Seniors 62+: $20, Youth 18 and Under: $15, Bucknell Employees and Retirees (limit 2): $15, Bucknell Students (limit 2): $10.
The free opening act for Anthracite Fields will feature Jay Smar at 6 p.m. in the Weis Center Atrium Lobby. Jay will serve his audience an "acoustic buffet" of traditional American and original folk, ol' time mountain music, bluegrass and gospel tunes, as well as coal mining songs of Northeast PA.