SAS 9: Developing Downstate Tourism Around Illinois Coal Mining Heritage: The Mythic Mississippi

Helaine Silverman
Anthropology Professor Emerita

Over the past five years Dr. Silverman has been collaborating with museums and other civic organizations downstate to help rural communities south of Springfield to develop their coal mining history into thematic tourism routes for people interested in labor and industrial history. Dr. Silverman presents the dramatic history of the miners who worked heroically to fuel America until the EPA and shift of energy preference gutted their jobs. Miners conserve great pride and continued brotherhood in the work they did. Dr. Silverman's project is helping them gain recognition and simultaneously participate in the effort to tell their story through a range of exhibitions.

Helaine Silverman is Professor Emerita in Anthropology and also was the Director of CHAMP (Collaborative for Cultural Heritage Management and Policy). She taught for the Campus Honors Program for many years and led multiple CHP student tours to Peru. In addition to her research in Peru, she has worked on cultural heritage, tourism, museum studies, and the anthropology of death. She has consulted for UNESCO on international World Heritage nominations and was involved with the successful nomination of two U.S. archaeological sites to the World Heritage List: Poverty Point and the Hopewell Earthworks. She has served on several anthropological journals. Most recently, she leads the Mythic Mississippi Project whose concern with cultural heritage promoting community development is related to this talk (https://mythicmississippi.illinois.edu/).

If this event is full when you try to register, please email chp@illinois.edu to be placed on a waitlist.