Author explores lessons Bethlehem can learn from Lowell

	Cathy Stanton

Cultural anthropologist Cathy Stanton will join the Humanities Center’s New Bethlehem lecture series on Thursday, Feb. 14, to discuss “Lessons from Lowell: Industrial History in Postindustrial Places.” The lecture, held at 4 p.m. in Linderman Library Room 200, is free and open to the public.
Stanton’s work explores the use of history, culture and the arts in de-industrialized places. Her award-winning book The Lowell Experiment: Public History in a Postindustrial City chronicles the development of Lowell National Historical Park, a pioneering urban national park that opened in Lowell, Mass., in 1978.
Stanton asks critical questions about the way Lowell used its history. Organizers of the lecture say that the book includes much that is relevant and suggestive for Bethlehem as the city sees the Bethlehem Steel site transformed into a zone for “new economy” work and play.
A free lunchtime follow-up discussion with Stanton will take place at 11:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 15, at Linderman Library Room 200. Conversation will focus on how the city of Bethlehem can apply the lessons of Stanton’s research to the creation of its own vibrant public history. Attendees can read a draft interpretive plan developed by the Lehigh Valley Industrial Heritage Coalition prior to the event on the Humanities Center Web site.
The lecture is sponsored by the Humanities Center, the South Side Initiative, the department of history, the Science, Technology and Society Program and the sociology and anthropology department.
--Tricia Long