Robert Wolensky

Professor (Emeritus)

Education

Ph.D., Sociology, Pennsylvania State University
M.A., Sociology, Pennsylvania State University
B.S., Sociology, Villanova University

Select Publications

Book Review of James Rada, Jr., Saving Shallmar: Christmas Spirit in a Coal Town, Gettysburg, PA: Legacy Publishing, 2012, appearing in the Mining History Journal, forthcoming.

Book Review of Catherine Tumber, Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America’s Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2012, appearing in Contemporary Sociology, forthcoming.

Anthracite Labor Wars: Tenancy, Italians, and Organized Crime in the Northern Coalfield of Northeastern Pennsylvania, 1897-1959, Easton, PA: Canal History and Technology Press, 2014, 447 pages. (co-authored)

Book Review of Alan Murray, Holding the Line: A Narrative History of Australian Coal Miners and their Union in the 1980s (Sydney: CFMEU - Mining and Energy, 2009), appearing in Common Cause, Summer 2010.

"The Leasing System at the Pennsylvania Coal Company: Development and Resistance,” in Lance Metz (ed.), Canal History and Technology Proceedings, Volume XXVIII, Easton, PA: Canal History and Technology Press, 2010.

Book Review of Ronald L. Lewis, Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coal Fields (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2008), forthcoming in the Journal of American Ethnic History.

“Rinaldo Cappellini and the Anthracite Labor Wars of 1920-1935,” in Lance Metz (ed.), Canal History and Technology Proceedings, Volume XXVIII, Easton, PA: Canal History and Technology Press, 2009.

Tragedy at Avondale: The Causes, Consequences, and Legacy of the Pennsylvania Anthracite Coal Industry’s Most Deadly Mining Disaster, September 6, 1869, Easton PA: Canal History and Technology Press. 2008. 191 pages. (co-authored)

“Remaking Local Government? Political Culture and Charter Reform in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 1968-2001,” Pennsylvania History. 73 (Fall 2006). (co-authored)

Honors and Grants

  • Fellowship: Honorary Fellowship, Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2014-15, “Needlepoint Narratives: An Oral History of Women Garment Workers and the ILGWU in Pennsylvania.”

  • Fellowship: Fulbright Research Fellowship, University of Exeter, UK, 2013-14, “A Comparative Study of ‘Putting-Out’ Systems in the US. and UK Coal Mining Industries”

  • Grant: Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Development, to organize the 18th Conference on the Small City and Regional Community, and a Workshop on Sustainable Development Conference during the 2011.

  • Fellowship: University of Wisconsin System, Institute for 21st Century Studies, UW-Milwaukee, “Anthracite Stories: The Shifting Ground of Narrative and Memory in an Industrial Region of the United States, 1830-2000.” (In Residence) Spring 2010.

  • Grant: “The Northeastern Pennsylvania Oral and Life History Project,” with King’s College, Wilkes-Barre, PA, from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. 2006-08

  • Fellowship: University of Wisconsin System, Institute for 21st Century Studies, UW-Milwaukee, “Needlepoint Narratives: An Oral History of Women Garment Workers in Pennsylvania.” (In Residence) 2006-07.

  • Honor: The Eugene Katz Distinguished Faculty Award, College of Letters and Science, UW-Stevens Point. 2005.

  • Honor: Scholarship Award, Department of Sociology, UW- Stevens Point. 2004-08.

Professional Memberships

  • American Sociological Association (ASA)

  • Oral History Association (Link)

  • Wisconsin Sociological Association (WSA)

  • Pennsylvania Historical Society (HSP)

  • Luzerne County (PA) Historical Society

  • Lackawanna County (PA) Historical Society

  • Schuylkill County (PA) Historical Society

  • Anthracite Living History Group

  • Huber Breaker Preservation Society

  • American Studies Association

  • Labor and Working Class History Association

  • Working Class Studies Association

  • Italian American Studies Association

  • Pennsylvania Labor History Association