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Dig Deeper: The Alfred F. Mannella and Rose T. Lauria-Mannella Endowed Distinguished Speaker Series Lecture

Composite3The Alfred F. Mannella and Rose T. Lauria-Mannella Endowed Distinguished Speaker Series Lecture will take place in Falvey Memorial Library on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 7:00 p.m. The annual event focuses on scholarship about Italian-American history, culture, and the immigrant experience. This year’s lecture will feature Joseph L. Tropea, PhD, retired professor and former chair, Department of Sociology, George Washington University.

Dr. Tropea’s previous research projects in institutional history have been published in Social Science History, Criminal Justice History, Journal of Education Quarterly, Journal of Management HistoryInternational Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, as well as in edited works in the U.S. and Europe. His recent research (his presentation’s focus) shifts to social history of the greatest mine disaster in U.S. History, which killed 361 persons, including 170 Italian migrants. His work, so far, includes findings which change the facts and interpretations of that 1907 disaster, especially for Italians (West Virginia History, 2013); a biography of a once-chastised northern Italian mother of five, widowed by the disaster (Women’s Studies, 2013); and a beguiling effort to document intimacies and intricacies of four Calabrian migrants to West Virginia’s Fairmont Coal Field, including a miner who died in the explosion (under review).

The presentation will reveal many bizarre but illustrative errors and myths that constitute too much Italian-American history and identity. Dr. Tropea’s grandparents migrated from four regions in Italy (Abruzzo, Lazio, Basilicata and Calabria) to settle in West Virginia, two of whom were present in Monongah at the time of the 1907 disaster. In addition, he was honored in Rome for his research and also as “Italian Man of the Year” in Clarksburg, West Virginia.

For more information on Monongah and Italian-American history, visit the resources below, selected by Alexander Williams, liaison librarian to the communications, sociology, and criminal justice departments.


Dig Deeper

The Alfred F. Mannella and Rose T. Lauria-Mannella
Endowed Distinguished Speaker Series Lecture Blog Resources

 Resources by Joseph L. Tropea

Tropea, J. L. (2013). Monongah revisited: Sources, body parts, and ethnography. West Virginia History: A Journal of Regional Studies, 7(2), pp. 63-91. doi:10.1353/wvh.2013.0017

Tropea, J. L. (2013). Catterina DeCarlo Davia – A West Virginia donkey. Women’s Studies, 42(4), pp. 369-389. doi:10.1080/00497878.2013.773196

Tropea, J. L. (2008). Revisiting Monongah. [Review of the book Monongah: The tragic story of the worst industrial accident in US history by J.D. McAteer]. Appalachian Journal, 35(4), pp. 358-364.

Tropea, J. L., Miller, J. E., & Beattie-Repetti, C. (Eds.). (1986). Proceedings from AIHA ’86: Support and struggle: Italians and Italian Americans in a comparative perspective : proceedings of the seventeenth annual conference of the American Italian Historical Association. Staten Island, N.Y.: The Association.

 

More Resources

Argentine, P. (Producer & Director). (2007). Monongah remembered [Motion picture]. United States: Argentine productions.

Bartlett, M., & Grubb, W. The Monongah mine disaster and its social setting: A collage of newspaper accounts. Fairmont, WV: s.n.

How many at Monongah? (1995). Professional Safety, 40(3), 20. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.v illanova.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/200413992?accountid=14853

McAteer, J. D. (2014). Monongah: The tragic story of the worst industrial accident in US history. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.

Monongah Mines Relief Committee. History of the Monongah mines relief fund: In aid of sufferers from the Monongah mine explosion, Monongah, West Virginia, December 6, 1907. [Whitefish, Mont.?]: Kessinger Pub..

Pitz, M. (2007, December 5). Italians arrive to honor immigrants killed in 1907 Monongah mine blast. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved from http://www.post-gazette.com/life/lifestyle/2007/12/05/Italians-arrive-to-honor-immigrants-killed-in-1907-Monongah-mine-blast/stories/200712050217

Pitz, M. (2007, November 28). Bell from Italy to toll in Monongah. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved from http://www.post-gazette.com/frontpage/2007/11/28/Bell-from-Italy-to-toll-in-Monongah/stories/200711280322

Rittenhouse, R. (2014). Monongah coal mine disaster 1907-2007: Pictorial history of a monumental tragedy. Westover, W.Va.: R. Rittenhouse.

Skog, J. (2014). The Monongah mining disaster. Minneapolis, Minn.: Compass Point Books.

Soladay, M. (2009). Remembering Monongah. Ambassador, 21, 11. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.villanova.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/204841924?accountid=14853

U.S. Department of Labor: Mine Safety and Health Administration. (1998, May 20). Mining disasters – An exhibition: 1907 Fairmont Coal Company mining disaster Monongah, West Virginia. Retrieved from http://www.msha.gov/DISASTER/MONONGAH/ MONON1.asp

 


Alex WilliamsDig Deeper links selected by Alexander Williams, research support librarian for the social sciences and liaison to the communications, sociology, and criminal justice departments. 


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Last Modified: November 4, 2014

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