The Coal Transition in the Ohio River Valley: Using Social Science and Fine Arts to Understand Community Impacts and Pathways for Resilience An SfAA Critical Conversation

The Coal Transition in the Ohio River Valley:

Using Social Science and Fine Arts to Understand

Community Impacts and Pathways for Resilience

An SfAA Critical Conversation

 

CHAIR: JACQUET, Jeffrey (OH State U)

CAPOBIANCO, Brian and BIELICKI, Jeff (OH State U)

Energy Transitions in the Ohio River Valley

STEWART, Gwynn and JACQUET, Jeffrey (OH State

1. U) Community Development and Arts in the Coal

Transition

FINNERAN, Kathryn Jane (OH State U) Trauma

Informed Approaches to Coal Transitions

DUGDALE, Tom (OH State U) and CORNELL,

Anne (Pomerene Ctr for the Arts)‘Calling Hours’

Documentary Theatre Project

 

JACQUET, Jeffrey and FINNERAN, Kathryn (OH State U) The Coal Transition

in the Ohio River Valley: Using Social Science and Fine Arts to Understand

Community Impacts and Pathways for Resilience. This paper reviews the

trans-disciplinary Ohio Coal Transitions Project, which seeks to combine social

science with theatrical performance, fine arts photography, and archival library

science to the tell the story of three Ohio case study communities in the midst

of their transition away from coal. Over 50 key informant interviews with coal

industry workers, elected officials, community leaders and residents produce

scholarly articles, community toolkits and transition guides, a curated archival

and fine arts photography exhibition and a community-theatre-produced

theatrical production that uses the interview transcripts as the basis of a two-

hour play centered on the experiences of plant workers.

 

Session took place in Cincinnati, OH at the 83rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in March 2023.