Zoe Brooks stands among the stacks of books. Brooks studies Appalachian labor history while working with archival collections in Special Collections and University Archives. Photo by Chase Parker for Virginia Tech.
Zoe Brooks turns coal country roots into research and preservation
In the mountains of Southwest Virginia, coal is more than history. It’s culture. And Zoe Brooks was built by it.
Growing up in Wise County, Virginia, Brooks didn’t have to search for history. It surrounded her. Her paternal grandfather spent years of his life mining in Appalachia, while her maternal grandfather helped deliver house coal across Eastern Kentucky.
“Even a generation removed from coal mining in my family, it was always clear to me how much coal mining influenced the culture of Appalachia,” Brooks said.
Old equipment sat scattered around town. A coal preparation plant and a towering tipple lined the road to her former elementary school. When the industry slowed during her teenage years, she remembers communities feeling frozen in time, marked by rusted machinery, creeping kudzu, and “Friends of Coal” signs that remained even as jobs disappeared.
“It’s hard not to think about the industry when the mining equipment still sits everywhere,” she said.
That experience now shapes her work as a history graduate student, where she studies Appalachian labor history while helping preserve the region’s coal stories inside Special Collections and University Archives.
Finding history in familiar places
Brooks initially planned to study environmental issues tied to mining, hoping to pursue law school and advocate for people back home. But once she began taking history classes as an undergraduate, her focus shifted.
“I realized that I was much more interested in the history of mining,” she said. “I thought I could use that to better understand the place I grew up in.”
Her academic path led to an honors thesis on labor unrest in Harlan County, Kentucky, during the 1930s, and eventually to Virginia Tech, where her research has expanded into questions of race, labor, and incarceration in post-Civil War coal mining.
Personal connections to mining communities continue to shape how she approaches sources and narratives. Growing up in Appalachia helps her recognize stereotypes embedded in historical documents — particularly the way newspapers and government reports often pushed miners to the sidelines of their own stories.
“The people who wrote these reports frequently leaned on stereotypes that painted people in Appalachia as backward and violent to discredit the work of miners and labor organizers from the area,” she said.
Family conversations also influence her research. When she needs insight into underground mining conditions or terminology, she often turns to relatives who are more connected to the industry.
Reframing labor history
At the center of Brooks’ thesis is a lesser-studied chapter of Appalachian labor history, the transformation of convict labor in Tennessee after the Civil War.
“I focus on how race and imprisonment influenced the experiences of incarcerated men,” she said. “Although convict leasing ended, this did virtually nothing to improve living and working conditions for the convict laborers.”
Coal mining offers a powerful lens for examining that history. While traditional narratives often center on white miners and labor strikes, Brooks’ work highlights people who have largely been left out of the story.
“My research combats misconceptions about Appalachian labor history,” she said.
Seeing history on the map
Brooks’ work in Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) connects directly to her research interests, particularly through the Pittston Mine Map Collection — a vast archive documenting mining sites and company properties across the Appalachian region.
While her thesis interprets written sources like newspapers and court documents, the maps in the collection provide a physical view of the mining world she studies.
“Looking at maps of towns, underground mines, and surface mines allows me to better visualize the physical characteristics of mining communities and the sites of labor themselves,” she said.
As she processes maps, she looks for details that help reconstruct the past, such as dates, scales, company names, and land ownership records. Those small clues can reveal how communities formed, who controlled resources, and how mining reshaped the landscape.
“SCUA gives me the opportunity to apply what I’ve learned in my classes in a real way,” she said. “I likely would not have gotten to work with collections like these at another institution.”
Zoe Brooks examines a map from the Pittston Mine Map Collection. Photo by Chase Parker for Virginia Tech.
Preserving stories that matter
As Brooks looks ahead, she remains open to multiple career paths. She may pursue museum work, public history, or a Ph.D., but her motivation and passion remain rooted in the place she calls home.
For Brooks, each map processed, each archival box opened, and each chapter written becomes another way of preserving a past that is both deeply personal and historically significant — ensuring that the voices and experiences of Appalachian communities continue to be seen, studied, and understood.
“This work is more than just research for me,” she said. “It’s my history.”
