A discussion of the worst mine disaster in U.S. history and Italian-American identity will take place at West Virginia University Sunday, March 16.

Joan Saverino will give the 3:30 p.m. presentation,Il Fuoco di Minonga: The 1907 Mine Disaster, the Landscape of Coal, and the Making of Transnational Italian Identity in West Virginia.

The talksponsored by WVU s Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and the Committee for the Preservation of Italian-American Heritage and Culturewill be in Durrett Hall of the Erickson Alumni Center on WVU s Evansdale Campus. It is free and open to the public.

Saverino will discuss the recent 100th anniversary of the Monongah mine disaster and the relationship between the people of Marion County and the mine victims, many of whom were Italians who had migrated from San Giovanni in Fiore, San Nicola dellAlto, Falerna, Gizzeria, Civitella Roveto, Duronia, Civita dAntino, Canistro, Torella del Sannio and other villages in Calabria, Abruzzo and Molise.

The mine disaster occurred Dec. 6, 1907. Hundreds of men and boys lost their lives, leaving 250 widows and more than 1,000 children without support.

Saverino will examine the relationships surrounding the disaster and ask a series of questions: What are the many associations of the immigrants who came and those they left behind? How are these relationships embodied in their adopted landscape in West Virginia and in that of their home country? What meaning does the historic mine disaster have for Italian-Americans in West Virginia, and what are its implications for a changing Italian-American identity in the 21st century?

Saverino is the assistant director for education at The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. She attended WVU and earned a bachelors degree in anthropology and sociology in 1975, along with a masters from The George Washington University in anthropology and a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in folklore and folklife.

She is the author of many scholarly articles, includingAn Appalachian Vignette,published in Italian Americana;Domani Ci Zappa: Italian Immigration and Ethnicity in Pennsylvaniain Pennsylvania Folklife; andMemories in Artifact and Stone: Italians Build a Neighborhoodin Germantown Crier.

Saverinos presentation is supported by the Endowment for the Preservation of Italian-American History and Culture. The endowmenthoused in WVU Foundation Inc. and administered through the Office of the Dean of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciencessupports a series of programs and activities which preserve and share the experience of early Italian immigrants to the United States.