Dr. William H. Turner - The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns
The Eberly College of Arts and Sciences is pleased to invite faculty, staff, students, and the entire Mountaineer community both near and far to the first annual Eberly Roundtable. This inaugural event brings together academic and public scholars, artists, and intellectuals to engage on a topic central to WVU’s land-grant mission and national identity. The inaugural theme of this year’s Eberly Roundtable is “A Coming Together.” Our distinguished participants have been invited to discuss blackness, black identity, black agency, and black presence in Appalachia. We would like to thank our sponsors for their generous support and look forward to this important conversation.
The event on October 12, 2021 features Dr. William H. Turner and the launching of his book The Harlan Renaissance on WVU Press. The event will begin with a book-signing and reception, followed by a discussion. Dr. Turner will discuss his new book, The Harlan Renaissance - an intimate remembrance of kinship and community from the treasured son of one of the most successful and diverse coal camps in Appalachia's history.
William H. Turner, PhD, the fifth of ten children, was born in 1946 in the coal town of Lynch, Kentucky, in Harlan County. His grandfathers, father, four uncles and older brother were coal miners.
Bill has spent his professional career studying and working on behalf of marginalized communities, helping them create opportunities in the larger world while not abandoning their important cultural ties. He is best-known for his ground-breaking research on African-American communities in Appalachia, but Bill’s work is universal. As an academic and a consultant, he has studied economic systems and social structures in the urban South and burgeoning Latino communities in the Southwest. What he strives for on behalf of his clients and their communities is what we all want: prosperity, understanding and respect.
Please register to attend this meeting by clicking here.
If you require an American Sign Language interpreter, please contact Dillon Butler at dcbutler@mail.wvu.edu at least three days prior to the event.