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International Conference:
Researching, Documenting, and
Preserving Highland Traditions
Transylvania University of Braov
October 6-9, 2015
Braov, Romania
Keynote speaker
DR. JOHN AKEROYD, Adept Foundation,
Saschiz, Mures, Romania
Book of Abstracts
Conference Board
Chris Baker, Walters State Community
College, Tennessee
Donald Edward Davis, University of the
District of Columbia, Washington DC
Rosann Kent, Director, Appalachian Studies
Center
University of North Georgia
David Kimbrough, Independent Scholar
Ann Kingsolver, Director, University of
Kentucky Appalachian Center, University of
Kentucky
Katherine Ledford, Program Director, Center
for Appalachian Studies, Appalachian State
University
Lou Martin, Chair, Department of History,
Political Science, and International Studies,
Chatham
University,
Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania
Christopher Miller, Associate Director, Loyal
Jones Appalachian Center, Berea College,
Berea, Kentucky
Ron R. Roach, Chair, Department of
Appalachian Studies, East Tennessee State
University, Johnson City, Tennessee
Dan Shope, Independent Scholar
Georgeta Moarcs, Faculty of Letters,
Transylvania University of Brasov
Cristian
Pralea,
Faculty
of
Letters,
Transylvania University of Brasov
Organizing Committee
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
DR. JOHN AKEROYD
Dr John Akeroyd is an English botanist. After
studying at the Universities of St Andrews
(BSc) and Cambridge (PhD), he was a postdoctoral researcher at Trinity College,
Dublin, and the University of Reading, where
he prepared a 2nd edition of volume 1 of
Flora Europaea, standard text to identify
European wild plants. Since 1989 he has
been an independent scholar, consultant,
editor and writer, including work for the EU
Habitats Directive, the Bern Convention and
the Planta Europa network. He co-founded
and edited global plant conservation
magazine Plant Talk, is author or editor of
twelve books on botany, ecology and
conservation, and author of numerous
scientific and popular articles. He has
traveled widely and escorted many tour
groups in Europe, especially in the
Mediterranean region, and has a particular
interest in the floras of Greece, Ireland and
Romania.
In 2000 he first visited the Saxon Villages
(Trnava Mare) in southern Transylvania,
identifying this as one of Europes most
important
cultural
and
ecological
landscapes. Since 2004 he has collaborated
with Romanian, British and other European
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conserve
the
natural
treasures
and
landscapes of the Pogny-havas region and
the farmers who manage them.In running
this programme, we have come to realise
that this traditional system of land
management is not just a historical treasure,
but could become the most sustainable
solution for food security, biodiversity and
prosperity in Romanias mountain regions in
the 21st century.
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in
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hardwoods
such
as
the
Carpathian
Mountains. This presentation will be of
interest to those seeking to learn more about
music, craft, craft materials and commodity
chains, and mountain identity in Appalachia.
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PhD,
Transilvania
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Techno
India
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capitalist
societies.
Ashevilles
leaders
responded conservatively to the flood, which
led to further marginalization of vulnerable
segments of the population and industries.
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Transilvania
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jburrison@gsu.edu
In the 1820s, following the Cherokee Indian
departure, traditional potters from North
Carolina began settling in the small farming
community
of
Mossy
Creek
in
the
Appalachian foothills of northeast Georgia.
It's not known what kind of ceramics these
pioneer potters first made, but by the 1830s
they and their offspring were embracing the
regional
tradition
of
alkaline-glazed
stoneware developed in South Carolinas
Edgefield District and likely inspired by
published accounts of similar Chinese highfiring ash- and lime-based glazes. Several
generations
of
Mossy
Creek
potters
produced jars, jugs, churns, and pitchers for
farm use before the Meaders family became
involved in the craft in 1892. Cheever
Meaders, the youngest of six potter brothers,
took over their fathers operation in 1920,
stubbornly potting his way through the Great
Depression until a tourist and collectors
market emerged. His wife, Arie, created a
new line of decorative wares appealing to
this new market, and in 1968 their son,
Lanier, took over the reins, combining his
fathers hand-skills with his mothers artistic
flair, making jugs with sculpted faces an
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The Making
of
a
Local
Collection
in
Mnzleti,
Romania
heritage
Buzu,
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Representations
of
Mountain
Communities in Mainstream Newspapers
GABRIELA CHEFNEUX, PhD,
University of Braov
gabrielachefneux@yahoo.co.uk
Transilvania
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Genius
Loci:
Documenting
Social
Change and the Death of Industry in Jiu
Valley, Romania
GABRIEL AMZA, Independent Researcher and
Photographer, V-Photo Agency, Romania
amza.gabriel@gmail.com
This ongoing project is working towards
creating an in-depth photographic narrative
of the swift decline of industry in the Jiu
Valley at a time in its history when it looks
both backwards to past glory, and forward to
an uncertain future. The Valley lies nestled in
the Carpathian Mountains that separate
Transylvania from the Southern plains of
Romania.
In the Jiu Valley, while traditionally a
sheepherding country, in the 1850s with the
advent of the Industrial Revolution coal
mining has taken over and caused continued
growth up until the 1990s, when a
combination of factors have led to the
industrys swift decline, throwing local
economy into tatters and the local people
into poverty. The area is going through a
difficult process of rediscovery as it tries to
survive and redefine itself.
The aim of the project is to document how
the shift from the coal hegemony status quo
has created a period of turmoil in the
economic and social environment of the area,
as well as in peoples day to day life. Genius
Loci is intended as an important historical
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the
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The
Mountaineers
Workbook.
The
Practical Value of Magic Folklore in
Appalachian
and
Carpathian
Communities
IOANA BASKERVILLE, PhD, Department of
Ethnology
A. Philippide Institute of Romanian Philology,
Romanian Academy Iasi Branch
repciuc_i_o@yahoo.com
In both American and Romanian folklore
scholarship of the romantic age, magic
beliefs and superstitions of remote, isolated
communities were generally considered as
proof of their backwardness and irrational
behavior.
Therefore
Appalachian
and
Carpathian communities were often pictured
as the primitive other of the civilized
lowlands, a world of fantasy and myth and an
appropriate token for touristic campaigns
and timeless nostalgia. Nevertheless, a
functionalist and holistic approach to the
magic worldview of these highlanders opens
up a different view on the rich inventory of
bizarre gestures intended to protect the
family and livestock, to improve the weather,
or to get practical things done in everyday
life. From this point of view, the mountainous
rural communities should be situated in
between an idealized legendary world and
the uncanny one. Highland magic seems to
be the result of a long process of adjustment
to harsh life conditions and to specific
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Transilvania
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DEMETER,
biologist
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