Introduction

A Comparative Approach to Mining

Why Peru?

I am a historical archaeologist who studies mining, labor, and inequality in the past. My recent research project examined forced labor practices of the silver mining industry in 17th century Peru.

As an archaeologist, my work favors a comparative approach to understanding the past. I compare aspects of human culture, such as ethnicity, gender, and inequality, in industrial and mining contexts around the world.

In the spring of 2019, I collaborated with the West Virginia Mine Wars Museum on a project for the World History Center at the University of Pittsburgh, where I served as a Graduate Student Assistant in Public History. The collaboration became a comparative public history project. I used objects of daily life to explore the similarities of miner life in historic West Virginia and Peru. This comparison highlights the similarity of miner life throughout space and time.

The final product of this public history project is a small visiting exhibit, housed at the WV Mine Wars Museum in Matewan, WV. Additionally, this website is another product of this project. 

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Left: An abandoned mill stone sits in the Itapalluni River. Puno, Peru. Photograph by Sarah Kennedy. 

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