Lydia Wright: Firsthand encounters with history
Growing up in West Virginia has strongly influenced Lydia Wright '07. Her surroundings instilled in her a love of mountains and an unusual perspective on the issues of the working class, education, and oppression. As a history major, she concentrated on modern America with a special focus on social and labor history. Last summer, with the help of a Deans' Summer Research Fellowship, Wright was able to travel to archives in West Virginia, the District of Columbia, and Pennsylvania to investigate a subject that had sparked her interest in history: education and labor issues in West Virginia's coal company towns. The thesis that resulted from that research, "A Miner's Education: Schools in the Coal Company Towns of Southern West Virginia, 1863–1933," was awarded the LaPrade prize by the history department for best senior honors thesis.
"The initial inspiration for this thesis came from my own experiences as a student in the public schools in West Virginia. As I came to understand the ways in which power and politics influence, and have always influenced, the actions and curricula of public schools, I reflected on my own education. We received two full years of West Virginia state history, in which the early twentieth-century battle between coal companies and union miners was portrayed in a decidedly pro-union light. This approach to historical teaching led me to wonder how subjects such as history and government would have been taught to students experiencing those struggles in the 1910s and 1920s.
"I first approached the subject with many preconceived notions about what I would find, mostly involving the evil coal companies using education to oppress the children of miners. As I proceeded with my research, however, I found history to be much more nuanced and complex. Coal-company actions were motivated by a variety of factors, including not only a desire to produce a contented, obedient working class, but also real pressure put on them by workers who wanted good schools for their children. In many ways, my thesis raises as many questions as it answers. But by delving into the complicated world of politics, education, and corporate power, the thesis attempts to challenge the idea of schooling as isolated from the society in which the schools operate."
Excerpt from A Miner's Education: Schools in the Coal Company Towns of Southern West Virginia, 1863–1933
While it lasted, coal company involvement in school development brought many positive additions to the lives of local residents. Company funds paid to build many new schoolhouses, which were often furnished with the most modern equipment and facilities. The supplementary salaries [the companies] provided allowed school boards to entice highly qualified teachers to work in these new schools. As both miners and their children learned to read and write, illiteracy rates dropped. Immigrants acquired English-language skills in company-sponsored night schools, and vocational education for both young and old helped make coal mines safer places to work.
But the positives on the company school ledger were balanced by the negatives. Because companies decided how and when to support local schools, the educational expansion serviced the business needs of the industry as much as the intellectual betterment of company town residents. The schools' funding depended on the coal industry's prosperity, as both direct company donations and taxes drawn from the one-industry economy fluctuated with the market. Company and government officials tailored the curricula to the particular conditions in the coal towns, equipping children to succeed in mining, but little else. With such intricate connections to industry, local schools, like the company towns that they served, declined when King Coal no longer thrived in the West Virginia mountains.
Kristina McDonald: Understanding conflict
Psychology graduate student Kristina McDonald wants to know why people are more likely to seek revenge in some circumstances and not others. And what are the larger implications for groups engaged in conflict? Her dissertation proposal, "Interpretations and Belief Systems Associated with Revenge Motivations," received the 2007–08 Kenan Dissertation Fellowship in Ethics, presented to a graduate student in any discipline whose forthcoming dissertation has a substantial ethics focus.
McDonald is collecting data over the summer and early fall from children, adolescents, and young adults in the Durham community. She'll work with undergraduate research assistants to analyze the data, and write the results for her dissertation, which she plans to defend in the spring of 2008.
"On a daily basis, individuals may face situations in which they are teased, left out of groups, betrayed, and treated badly by both peers and loved ones. Coping with being wronged is a difficult social task that humans must master. When confronted with various types of minor as well as major provocation, individuals could choose to respond in many ways, one of which is to seek revenge.
"Yet, revenge motivations are potentially damaging for people's psyches, as well as for their relationships. Nietzsche wrote that feelings of vindictiveness were 'self-poisoning' or damaging to the self. There is also evidence that taking revenge does not improve how one feels or decrease the pain felt from the original offense…. Revenge may not gain anything for the retaliator and may just prolong a cycle of violence by promoting the continuation of the aggression chain, ultimately hurting the avenger more.
"My dissertation will help scientists and interventionists understand the perceptions and behavior of people in provoking interpersonal situations, experiences that many face in their daily lives. Understanding how and why children and adults retaliate when provoked has great implications for character education in elementary and secondary schools….
"Additionally, my dissertation addresses an ethical challenge that is also a concern for intergroup conflict and national relations. Research on revenge seems particularly relevant now, when there is increased violence among ethnic and religious groups. Questions about the ethics of retaliation are also central to our government's policies about foreign relations and how to handle aggression toward our nation. While all the factors pertinent to revenge in interpersonal situations may not be relevant to revenge between groups, it seems that understanding more about personal revenge motivations may also be helpful for understanding revenge on the larger world stage."
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