Upper Cumberland Institute
THE UPPER CUMBERLAND HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES INSTITUTE was created at Tennessee
Tech in the 1980s by professors Homer Kemp (English) and Calvin Dickinson (History).
Through the years, UCI has undertaken many invaluable research projects pertaining
to the Upper Cumberland region of Tennessee and Kentucky, from architectural histories
to oral histories of coal miners. In 2005, joined by their former student Prof. Michael
Birdwell, they created THE UPPER CUMBERLAND STUDIES ENDOWMENT to help fund the Institute,
the directorship of which Birdwell undertook in 2014 after Kemp and Dickinson had
both retired. Upon the untimely demise of Dr. Birdwell in 2022, directorship was passed
to Dr. Troy D. Smith, to whom all three professors had served as mentors.
It is the goal of the Institute to honor the past accomplishments of, and continue
the legacy of, Professors Kemp, Dickinson, Birdwell, and their students through the
years, by continuing to give students hands-on experience in preserving the history
of our region using the most up-to-date equipment and resources.
Oral History Interviews
Veterans
Labor
Current Ongoing Projects
- Creating a digital oral history archive of labor in the Upper Cumberland -specifically, at this time, tobacco agriculture and garment manufacturing or “shirt factories”
- Creating a digital oral history archive of interviews with military veterans from the Upper Cumberland
- In partnership with Geology and Tennessee Tech Archives, initially via a “Rural Reimagined” grant, building a digital archive of Upper Cumberland weather/climate history
Contact Information
Interested in learning more? We’d love to hear from you!
Contact Dr. Smith via email at tdsmith@tntech.edu or by phone at 931-372-6297.
