The Saint Vincent College Center for Northern Appalachian Studies seeks to document the heritage of the multi-faceted region of Northern Appalachia using the tools provided by a variety of disciplines and community-oriented projects.
We work to enable students and faculty to learn across the whole spectrum of human experience through interdisciplinary study and participation in fieldwork. Simultaneously, members of the off-campus community (local, state, national and international) collaborate with us at every level in collecting, preserving, relating and interpreting their pasts and experiences.
Most of the material traditionally available in Appalachian Studies has covered what is more correctly called "Central Appalachia" by the Appalachian Regional Council, and sometimes "Southern Appalachia," a traditional term used for the area south of the Mason-Dixon Line. By contrast, Northern Appalachia -- which includes Western and Central Pennsylvania, Southern New York, Northern West Virginia, Western Maryland, Southeastern Ohio -- has been largely overlooked in the literature. The area from Northern Pennsylvania through to sections of the Atlantic Provinces of Canada may also correctly be included in the region. Our center was the first of its kind to specifically identify itself with Northern Appalachia.
Saint Vincent, founded in 1846, is an historically fitting location for our efforts. We sit in the midst of an industrial, railroading, agricultural area from which the history (including ethnic and folk histories) of factory, railroad, coal coke, farm work and immigrant life, is rapidly disappearing. Saint Vincent Seminary is the only Roman Catholic graduate theological seminary in the 397 counties designated by the Federal Government as Appalachia. The Seminary is a charter member of AMERC, a consortium of seminaries which offers specialized training for students preparing for ministries in small towns and rural areas, especially within Appalachia.
Moreover, Saint Vincent Archabbey, a Benedictine monastery, has staffed parishes in the area for almost 150 years and thus has established innumerable personal ties to the people of the region through parish outreach.
Finally and of greatest significance, most of the students at Saint Vincent College are from Western Pennsylvania. Their involvement in the Center provides them with a deeper understanding of themselves and a local base on which to build a larger and interdisciplinary understanding of culture and both Western and global civilizations. Because of these various and significant connections and relationships between the Saint Vincent Community and the people of Western Pennsylvania, we consider Western Pennsylvania to be the primary but not the exclusive field for our study of Northern Appalachia.
[Center banner designed by Michael Cerce, Downs and Associates. Banner contents: Frederick "Fritz" Wissolik, US 80th Division, 319th Infantry, 1917-1918; Joseph LaValle, US 17th Field Artillery, ETO; Harry McCracken, US 99th Infantry Division, ETO; George Clark, US 366th Fighter Group, ETO; Pennsylvania Coal Miner; Italian and Jewish families, Pennsylvania].
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Dr. Richard David Wissolik, Director
Rev. Warren Murrman, OSB, Associate Director
Rev. Wulfstan Clough, OSB, Associate Director
