The Center for Folklore Studies will host Raymond Thompson, Assistant Professor in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin, for his talk, "Appalachian Ghost: A Photographic Reimagining of the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster." This event is free and open to the public.
In the 1930s, near Fayetteville, West Virginia, 5,000 workers traveled to the area to work on a hydroelectric dam project. Two-thirds of these workers were Black. An estimated 2,900 laborers worked underground to dig a three-mile tunnel while exposed to silica dust. Improper construction techniques allowed clouds of silica dust to overwhelm the workers, causing an estimated 764 deaths. This story is shallowly buried beneath the West Virginia landscape, with very little to mark the incident. "Appalachian Ghosts" is a visual re-examination of the Hawks Nest Tunnel Disaster.
Raymond Thompson is an artist, educator, and journalist based in Austin, TX. He is an incoming Assistant Professor of Photojournalism at The University of Texas at Austin. He has a MFA in photography from West Virginia University. He received his masters degree from The University of Texas at Austin in journalism and graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a BA is American Studies. He received the 2020 Lenscratch Student Prize. He has worked as a freelance photographer for The New York Times, ACLU, Politico, NPR, The Nature Conservancy, The Intercept, NBC News, Propublica, WBEZ, Google, Merrell and the Associated Press.
Hosted by University Libraries, the Center for Folklore Studies and the Humanities Institute.
The Humanities Institute and its related centers host a wide range of events, from intense discussions of works in progress to cutting-edge presentations from world-known scholars, artists, activists and everything in between.
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