"People Say We Melded Together but We Didn't": Teaching and Learning Critical Place-Based Histories of the Roslyn Cemeteries

• In Event: Place, Space, and Lessons for Social Justice

Abstract

This qualitative and historical analysis examines a former coal mining town in rural Washington State in order to better understand the scholarly and pedagogical concerns for the teaching and learning of history through a critical place-based lens. The study examines the town and the racial-ethnic diversity of its 26 distinct yet connected cemeteries through data generated in conversation with community members, visits to local archives as well as walks through sites of historical significance. Preliminary findings suggest two important considerations for the teaching and learning of history through a critical place-based lens, taking into account the problematics of Western epistemologies of place and issues of (in)visibility: (a) history as relational and containing multiple truths, and (b) constituted spatially.

Authors

• Taiko Aoki-Marcial, University of Washington

• Lauren Plitkins, University of Washington