The Times West Virginian

Local News

September 21, 2008

Presidential Lecture series continues at FSU

Byers’ talk Friday also a part of ‘Celebration of Ideas’ program

By Katie Wilson

FAIRMONT — Fairmont State is preparing for an evening of personal and community history this week.

On Friday, professor Judy Byers will present a lecture titled “Saluting Abelina Suarez and the Asturias-West Virginia Connection.”

The event will begin at 5 p.m. with a light buffet featuring ethnic foods and exhibits in Multi-media Room A of the Ruth Ann Musick Library on the FSU and Pierpont Community & Technical College main campus. The lecture will begin at 5:45 p.m. Sign language interpreting services will be provided.

Chris Lavorata, FSU associate provost, said a Presidential Lecture has been held each year since 1989.

The Presidential Lecture series was established in 1989 to provide faculty the opportunity to share their work with colleagues and members of the community.

This year, Byers’ lecture is part of that program as well as the annual Celebration of Ideas Lecture series.

She said Byers’ lecture mixes in wonderfully with the university’s efforts to become more globally aware. More and more, FSU students are studying abroad, and this year, the number of international students coming to FSU increased.

“This is an academic program that honors, welcomes and acknowledge our community and our roots,” Lavorata said.

Members of the Suarez family are expected to attend Byers’ lecture, Lavorata said.

Byers was named the first recipient of the Abelina Suarez Professorship in 2002 and completed volumes of research on Suarez and her family as part of her professorship.

The professorship is presented through a bequest by the estate of Abelina Suarez who died on Oct. 6, 2000, at the age of 90. Established as Fairmont State’s first named professorship, the award will be made every five years, but each honoree will carry the title in perpetuity.

Suarez was born in Asturias, Spain, in 1910 and emigrated to this country with her parents when she was 9 months old. Her life was spent in Harrison County with the exception of trips to her native Asturias province. She was an educator and leader of various civic groups.

During her research, Byers learned Suarez’s story paints a picture of a family overcoming ethnic and gender prejudices while finding their part of the American dream. The Abelina Suarez story is indeed a backdrop to the early 20th-century immigration connection that is just beginning to be fully recognized, analyzed and saluted in Appalachia, especially through Byers and the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center.

Byers has spent her career studying and recording various aspects of Appalachian culture and history. Known as a folklorist, English educator and storyteller, she is the executrix for the folklore estate of the late Dr. Ruth Ann Musick, eminent regional folktale scholar, which includes the holdings of the former West Virginia Folklore Society, housed at FSU.

Currently, Byers is the program chair for the Assembly on the Literature and Culture of Appalachia of the National Council of Teachers of English that encourages regionalism as a major component of literacy. She is actively involved in the restoration of the former Kennedy Barn as the future home of the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center.

As an extension to academia, Byers is an avid traveler who has encouraged cultural understanding by organizing and directing many study-abroad programs for college and community members, recently to such areas as Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Eastern Europe and Italy.

She is excited about the development of Italian studies in the Department of Language and Literature, its student exchange program with the University of Calabria at Consenza and the partnership between FSU and the Calabria-WV Italian Heritage Association.

For more information on the cultural heritage of Asturias, Spain, review the following Web site: http://www.asturianus.org.

E-mail Katie Wilson at kwilson@timeswv.com.

Text Only
Local News
  • Marion co 911--DS.jpg It’s an emergency

    A Dalmatian was on a mission. And he was in a hurry.
    In a fire truck, the Dalmatian, Patches, rushed into Monongah Elementary on Tuesday morning while students looked on in amusement.

    February 8, 2012 1 Photo

  • MCVB and MCPARC OPENING -TS.jpg CVB, MCPARC moving to new homes

    The Convention & Visitors Bureau of Marion County and the Marion County Parks and Recreation Commission are excited to have a new place to call home.
    On Monday, both organizations began simultaneously moving into their new offices in the visitor center building directly off Interstate 79 Exit 136 at 1000 Cole St., Pleasant Valley.

    February 8, 2012 1 Photo

  • Ministers Run still looking for local control

    Following two meetings in different locations Tuesday, the Ministers Run Water Association is still looking for a way to keep its utility in local hands.
    Last week, the state Public Service Commission held a hearing in Grant Town.

    February 8, 2012

  • Man indicted for forgery, uttering, other crimes

    A Fairmont man charged with forgery, uttering and other crimes is one of 23 people named in indictments handed down by the Marion County Grand Jury in its second day of deliberations Tuesday.
    Jeremy Nathan Ferraro, 31, Fairmont, was indicted on forgery; uttering; obtaining money, property or services by false pretenses; and domestic battery, third offense.

    February 8, 2012

  • White Hall students find there’s ‘purpose’ with writing

    Picking up a pen and being inspired to write didn’t come from within for author and poet Anna Smucker.
    Not until she met an author as a child did she begin to realize which career path best suited her and her interests.
    “I thought authors lived in New York or Hollywood, drove around in Cadillacs,” Smucker said.

    February 8, 2012

  • Former halfway house director sentenced to five months in prison

    The former director of a local federally contracted halfway house will serve time in prison for an inappropriate relationship with an inmate.
    Carrie L. Cockrell, 36, of Clarksburg, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Clarksburg by Judge Irene M. Keeley to five months’ imprisonment followed by five years of supervised release.

    February 8, 2012

  • Murray urges BOE members get pay for mandated training, raise for meetings

    Marion County Board of Education member Mary “Sis” Murray recently encouraged lawmakers to grant school board members pay for mandated training and a raise for meetings.
    Murray serves as president of the West Virginia School Board Association, which she said is made up of 275 school board members across the state.

    February 8, 2012

  • Quiet Dell ‘Close-knit community’

    Kids today. Two words are all it takes to bring to mind a familiar refrain commonly associated with old-timers and walking uphill in the snow with the wolves nipping at your heels.

    February 7, 2012 1 Photo

  • Man who led police in high-speed chase indicted

    The man who led area law enforcement units in a high-speed chase from Marion to Harrison County in November 2011 is one of 20 people named in indictments returned Monday by a Marion County Grand Jury in Judge David Janes’ courtroom.

    February 7, 2012

  • BOE votes against job change for Neptune

    The Marion County Board of Education voted against hiring Andrew Neptune as an administrative assistant during its meeting Monday night.

    February 7, 2012