Humanities Team
Dr. Patricia Beaver is Director of the Center for Appalachian Studies and Professor of Anthropology at Appalachian State University.
Dr. Ronald Eller is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, where he served for 15 years as the Director of the UK Appalachian Center.
Dr. Hywel Francis is Labour Member of Parliament for Aberavon since 2001. He was the founder of the South Wales Miners’ Library (1973).
Ms. Mair Francis is a community organizer, activist and author of numerous articles on women’s training and lifelong learning, including her history of the DOVE Workshop in Banwen.
Dr. Helen Lewis has taught, organized, conducted research, and published numerous books and articles in Appalachia since the 1950s. As Director of Highlander Center in New Market, Tennessee, she organized exchanges involving U.S. and Welsh coal miners.
Dr. John Gaventa is the director of Coady International Institute at St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
Dr. William Schumann is assistant professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, and lead teacher in Appalachian State University’s Study Abroad in Wales since 2003.
Dr. Victoria Winckler is director of the Bevan Foundation, is a leading contributor to public policy in Wales, with particular expertise on poverty, regeneration and equality issues.
Dr. Brian Winston is Lincoln Chair of Communications at the University of Lincoln, UK.
Film Team
Mr. Tom Hansell is a documentary filmmaker who teaches at Appalachian State University. His most recent documentary project, The Electricity Fairy, premièred at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010.
Ms. Elizabeth Barret is director of Appalshop’s Archives. A veteran documentary filmmaker, she is the producer and director of Stranger With A Camera, which premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.
Mr. Richard Greatrex, BSC, is a cinematographer raised in South Wales with more than 45 titles to his credit. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Shakespeare in Love. During the 1970’s, Greatrex created video and film works for the United Mine Workers of America and anti-strip mining projects in Tennessee, as well as the 1974-1976 videotapes of South Wales mining communities.
Mr. Frank Hennessy presents BBC Radio Wales’ folk music show, Celtic Heartbeat. Other music series for BBC Wales TV include Way Out West – tracing the roots of Cajun, Appalachian and Cape Breton music, and Way Down Under, a look at the music and culture of Australia.
Mr. Rich Kirby is a musician and radio producer from Dungannon, Virginia. Working at WMMT-FM, the public radio service of Appalshop Media Arts Center since 1990, he has produced several radio series on traditional Appalachian music for national broadcast.
Mr. Jack Wright is an actor, documentary filmmaker, and musician. His recent projects include producing Music of Coal: Mining Songs from the Appalachian Coalfields, a two CD anthology.