RAIL Project Symposium

UNC Asheville

A symposium focusing on the RAIL Project, which centers the stories of incarcerated African American railroad laborers in 19th century NC.

UNCA Campus and various memorial sites (memorial sites on April 1st only)

Schedule for RAIL Project Symposium – March 30, 31, and April 1Thursday, March 30 – Manheimer Room, Reuter Center7:00 PM - Keynote: Dr. Darin Waters, Deputy Secretary, NC Office of Archives and HistoryReception followingFriday, March 31 – Mountain View Room, Kimmel Arena8:30 AM – Coffee and Pastries9:00 – Welcome – Dr. Tracey Rizzo (Dean of Humanities, UNCA)9:15 - Session 1How We Began, What We Did, and What It All MeansRAIL Board Member RoundtableModerator - Steve Little (Mayor, City of Marion)Ray McKesson (CFO McDowell Technical College, ret.)Stephanie Stepson Twitty (President and CEO Eagle Market Streets Development Corp.)RoAnn Bishop (Director, Mountain Gateway Museum)Ashley Whittle (Archives and Special Collections Assistant ,UNCA)Jim Stokely (President, Wilma Dykeman Legacy)Jeff Futch (Western Regional Supervisor, NC Department of Cultural and Natural Resources)10:45 – Break11:00 – Session 2Using Human Remains Detection Dogs and Ground Penetrating Radar to Help Locate HistoricBurial GroundsModerator – Dr. Sarah Judson (Chair, Department of History, UNCA)Cat Warren (Department of English, NC State University, Author: What the Dog Knows)Blair Tormey (Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines, Western Carolina University)Paul Martin (Martin Archaeology Consultants)12:30 – Lunch Break1:30 – Session 3Moderator – Dr. Abena Boakyewa-Ansah (Department of History, UNCA)Partners in Memorializing: The Asheville African American Cemeteries Project, The BuncombeCounty Remembrance Project, and The African Americans in the Smokies ProjectDr. Ellen Holmes Pearson (Department of History, UNCA and South Asheville and The 828Digital Archives for Historical Equity Project)Dr. Joseph Fox (CEO Fox Management Consulting Enterprises and Buncombe CountyRemembrance Project)Antoine Fletcher (Science Communicator, Great Smoky Mountains National Park)3:00 – Break3:15 – Session 4Where Do We Go From Here: Challenges and OpportunitiesModerator – Dr. Dan Pierce (Department of History, UNCA)Cayla Colclasure (Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology, UNC-CH)Dr. Jeff Keith (Department of Global Studies, Warren Wilson College)Dr. Kevin Kehrberg (Department of Music, Warren Wilson College)Anne Chesky-Smith (Director, WNC Historical Association)Saturday, April 1 - Various Memorial Sites Four Field Opportunities: Session 1 @ 9:30 AM; Session 2 @ 11:00 AMThe Swannanoa Gap – Ashley McGhee WhittleAndrews Geyser and the RAIL Memorial – Steve Little and Paul TwittyAndrews Geyser and Human Remains Detection Dogs – Cat WarrenA Walk Down the Point Lookout Greenway (2 miles on pavement) – Dan Pierce

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RAIL Project Symposium

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RAIL Project Symposium

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