The SIS Oral History Project: Transformative Teaching and Learning in the Humanities

FAIN: AB-264116-19

Spelman College (Atlanta, GA 30314-4399)
Gloria Wade Gayles (Project Director: July 2018 to December 2022)

Curricular improvements to an oral history course focused on African American women from the rural and small-town South, as well as archival preservation of interviews with these community elders.

In August of 2002, students at Spelman College were introduced to The SIS Oral History Project, a new course that would: (1) open the lens of age in studies of history and literature; (2) identify oral history as a major methodology for research in the humanities; and (3), through student-conducted interviews, give voice and visibility to African American women elders of the South. That “new course” is, today, a demanding project that transforms teaching and learning in the humanities. The project meets criteria for NEH funding for Humanities Initiatives at HBCUs in the following ways: (1) it strengthens students’ skills in writing, critical thinking, oral articulation, and research across disciplines; (2) through a partnership with AUC Robert W. Woodruff Library Archives Research Center, it insures that project research will be preserved and disseminated for use in humanities courses across the nation; and (3) it produces age-conscious scholars for the twenty-first century.

Associated Products

SIS Oral History Project - Journeying South to Stories (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: SIS Oral History Project - Journeying South to Stories
Writer: Gloria Wade Gayles, Phd
Writer: Angela Wood
Director: Angela Wood
Producer: Gloria Wade Gayles, PhD
Abstract: Our Spelman College SIS video team traveled with our faculty and scholars on Journeying South to Stories and documented the trip and learnings. In 2019 Journeying South to Stories took SIS Scholars from Atlanta to Montgomery, Birmingham, Talladega, and Memphis on an itinerary that included visits to the Lynching Museum in Montgomery, the Civil Right Museum in Birmingham and to experiences in Memphis that included interviews with activities in the I Am A Man Movement of the sixties, with current activities of the NAACP, lectures by Dr. Charles McKinney at Rhodes College, and to interview centenarian Mrs. Callie Terrell.
Year: 2019
Primary URL: https://youtu.be/6qLmIwkPyvw
Format: Video

Spelman College SIS Oral History Project: Amazing Elders Video - A Digital Harvest (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Spelman College SIS Oral History Project: Amazing Elders Video - A Digital Harvest
Writer: Gloria Wade Gayles, PhD
Director: Angela Wood
Producer: Gloria Wade Gayles, PhD
Abstract: The SIS Oral History Project interviews African American elder women around the world. This short digital harvest of oral history interviews demonstrates the use of interviews in the teaching of the humanities while capturing the unheard, unsung voices of our Women of Wisdom.The Spelman Independent Scholars Oral History Project interviews elders over the age of 70 from the US and the Caribbean capturing memory stories. This video provides a sample harvest taken from longer one hour videos conducted by students and archived for posterity in the AUC Woodruff Digital Archives Research Center.
Year: 2020
Primary URL: https://youtu.be/WHB8anvcOpc
Secondary URL: https://youtu.be/EOwhusO2Jf4
Access Model: Public
Format: Video

Spelman College President Interview - Spelman Independent Scholars (SIS) Oral History Project (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Spelman College President Interview - Spelman Independent Scholars (SIS) Oral History Project
Writer: Gloria Wade Gayles, PhD
Director: Angela Wood
Producer: Gloria Wade Gayles, PhD
Abstract: Spelman SIS Oral History Project Scholars interview the President of the College, Mary Schmidt Campbell, PhD. The purpose of the SIS Oral History Project is to prepare undergraduate women at a historically Black college for age-conscious scholarship and service in the twenty-first century.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://youtu.be/WHB8anvcOpc
Format: Video

Spelman Independent Scholars (SIS) Oral History Project - Ma Mel's Oral History Interview (Film/TV/Video Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Spelman Independent Scholars (SIS) Oral History Project - Ma Mel's Oral History Interview
Writer: Alex Swann
Director: Angela Wood
Producer: Gloria Wade Gayles, PhD
Abstract: Spelman Oral History Project Scholar, Alix Swann interviews her grandmother for the SIS Oral History Project Archives. See how SIS utilizes the methodology of oral history to improve the teaching of humanities in college. The goal of the Spelman SIS Oral History Project is to prepare undergraduate women at a historically Black college for age-conscious scholarship and service in the twenty-first century.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://youtu.be/XCU3L1r1tkM
Format: Video

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