Karaleah S. Riechart was raised in the Shenandoah Valley of the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, and has had a lifelong interest in addressing contemporary issues in Appalachia. She is considered an expert on gender and industrial conflict and has authored several peer-reviewed articles. Prior to being the Fall 2001 Rockefeller Scholar-in Residence at CSEGA, Dr. Riechart earned her PhD. in Anthropology from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Currently, Dr. Riechart is the Visiting Research Professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and is writing a book, entitled Engendering Alliances to be published by Ohio University Press.
To contact Dr. Reichart with comments on their research or to obtain copyright permission, please email her at:
ksreichart@aol.com
During the turbulent labor struggles of the twentieth century, the coal industry in the United States was marked by significant contests over union organization and industrial power. Many historical interpretations of labor-management strife in Appalachia have dismissed the participatory roles of women as stakeholders in these contract negotiations and strikes. By using ethnographic research methods and narrative analysis, my previous work as a scholar affiliate at CSEGA has demonstrated that women were indeed an integral part of the bargaining process. Tangible outcomes of various labor disputes clearly depended on community involvement and women's activities, and I rely on these findings as the foundation of this new research project, conducted during my tenure as a Rockefeller Fellow in 2001. Given the substantial sociological and historical literature that calls into question the dichotomy between women's ("domestic") and men's ("public") spheres of activity, women's roles in coal communities cannot be conflated into a universal set of tasks performed by all women at all times as a means to the same ends. By the same token, racial and ethnic divisions serve to further splinter the interests of members of coal communities. Because of the complexity of these issues, my research centers on understanding the fundamental intersections of race, class and gender in these communities. As a result of this fellowship opportunity, I was able to glean new forms of information from life history interviews and participant observation by conducting an ethnographic study among black women in southern West Virginia today to evaluate their multifarious interests and differing strategies for participating in conflicts associated with the coal industry. In this project, I collected and analyzed narratives from black women who have been affected by these conflicts and have specific strategies of coping with these disputes. The results of my research contribute to a greater understanding of community dynamics at the nexus of race, gender and class during industrial conflicts in Appalachia today.
Conflicts of Interest: Black Women's Experience in Contemporary Coal Industry Disputes
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Dr. Reichart will present her research in the Drinko Library Auditorium on
Thursday, March 6th from 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. in the Drinko Library Auditorium.
This presentation will be broadcast live over the internet.
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Dr. Reichart will be available for an online chat on Thursday, March 6th from 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
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