The WVU community is invited to attend the grand opening ceremony of a unique photo exhibit titled “A ‘Double Whammy’ of Disasters: Flooding and COVID-19 in Rural West Virginia” from 5:15-6:45 p.m. Monday, Sept. 12, in the Health Sciences Center’s Fukushima Auditorium Lobby.
Dr. Clay Marsh, chancellor and executive dean for WVU Health Sciences, will open the event.
Images curated by Jamie Shinn, assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geography, and John Wyatt, her community partner, narrate rural life in Rainelle as the community faced both the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and lingering devastation from West Virginia’s notorious 2016 flooding.
Thanks to funding from the WVU Humanities Center, Shinn and Wyatt collaborated to identify a group of nine residents who participated in the project, including local business owners, city council members, parents and retirees.
“I loved using the method of photovoice in this project, because it allowed participants to tell their own story rather than filtering it through me, the researcher,” Shinn said. “While each photo is a snapshot of one person’s viewpoint at a particular moment, together they tell a much more complex story of this place, one that goes far beyond the pandemic.”
Most strikingly, the result is a visual representation of people’s experiences with COVID-19 and the historic flooding in ways both familiar and unique, as told through their own voices and lenses," Shinn added.
The exhibit will be on display at the Health Sciences Center Pylons through November.