Alabama is widely known for its natural beauty, rich cultural history, love of food and, of course, our state’s love of football. What many might not know about Alabama is its wide array of biodiversity, particularly along the Gulf Coast. From eels to sharks, numerous beautiful and fearsome creatures are teeming in our coastal waters.
 
You can find the American eel swimming in Alabama’s waters. They are instantly recognizable for the long fin that runs nearly the entire length of their bodies and for their very sharp teeth. This gleaming, snakelike creature migrates all the way from Alabama to the Sargasso Sea in the Atlantic Ocean where it spawns and then dies. American eels are especially prevalent in the Mobile Delta and have been collected from every river in the Mobile basin and in several coastal drainages in southeastern Alabama. Unfortunately, the eel population in our state is declining due to migration routes being blocked by high-lift locks and dams.

As a student completing degrees in religious studies and library science, it is probably not surprising that collective memory and memorialization are among my research interests. At bottom, both disciplines are fundamentally concerned with history. Scholars of religion study not only the traditions and rituals that are passed down within different groups but also how history shapes the way that people relate to themselves, each other, and the world writ large. Archivists parse written records to decide what is valuable enough to preserve, and librarians play an important role in providing the public with access to transcribed history. As a subject of study, collective memory bridges the two fields by examining how we—as a society—sacralize people and events that we have agreed are important.