On the Water and Beneath the Waves; Stories of Coastal Georgia
Thursday, April 18
Ships of the Sea Museum
41 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
“On the Water and Beneath the Waves; Stories of Coastal Georgia”
Kurt Knoerl, Department of History, Armstrong Campus
Jennifer Sweeney Tooks, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Statesboro Campus
Description of Lecture
Salt marshes, rivers, lakes and the Atlantic Ocean are integral parts of Coastal Georgia’s culture and heritage. This presentation highlights the ways researchers preserve the stories of maritime communities through collecting oral narratives and listening for echoes of the past. Kurt Knoerl will explore how shipwreck sites along our coast often act as accidental time capsules, containing information about vessels and their demise, as well as their crews, passengers, shipbuilders and many others. Focusing on the contemporary era, Jennifer Sweeney Tooks will trace representative stories coastal Georgians tell of life on the water, paying particular attention to those about commercial fishing and its importance to the state’s living history and culture. Together they will demonstrate how — both on and below the water — many Georgia communities have depended on the coastal environment for their cultural base for generations.
