rofessor Mary LaLone found inspiration for her cultural anthropology classes at a Pulaski flea market. While that may seem like an odd place to begin looking for inspiration of any kind, it all fell into place for Lalone and her students, who had begun the project as an economic anthropology study. They quickly learned that the community of a flea market itself is a huge factor in its economy, as vendors barter, buy and sell among themselves and customers both regular and unique.

From there LaLone and her students from numerous classes have embarked on a number of collaborative research projects, including a study producing recommendations for an Appalachian Heritage Education Center at Selu Conservatory, a study producing two collections of oral histories from the nearby mining community of Prices Fork and a history of the Radford Arsenal.

LaLone says that the two factors of community involvement and collaborative research with her students are important to her as a professor.

“This is what keeps me teaching,” she says. “The experiential learning aspects are fascinating to me and my students.”

Many of LaLone’s projects center around cultural heritage preservation. She admits that students can be a hard sell at first, but once a speaker or two has visited her classes the students are usually very enthusiastic.

Lining up those speakers, coordinating with government agencies is work, says LaLone. In fact, it is even more work than teaching from the textbook, but she enjoys it, as do her students.

“It would be hard to do the research on my own; it would take years and years, and when you’re doing heritage preservation, you may not have years and years,” she says, noting that in many instances the heritage being preserved is held by an aging segment of the community.

As for what the students get out of these collaborative research efforts, LaLone points to an entire mentoring process that begins with simply taking a class but eventually can lead to valuable experiences that look good on an undergraduate resume.

“They start in a beginning project, but they can grow it into a practicum,” she says, with students eventually presenting papers at professional society meetings and conferences.

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