LSU History Department Continues to Seek Louisiana Women for Oral History Project

“Listening to Louisiana Women: Sexuality, Reproduction and Social Equality” Project Funded by the Ford Foundation

01/23/2012

BATON ROUGE – The LSU History Department is looking for Louisiana women with a story to tell. As part of a grant from the Ford Foundation, LSU History Associate Professor Alecia Long and her 2012 history students are gathering oral histories for their project, “Listening to Louisiana Women: Sexuality, Reproduction and Social Equality.”

The purpose of the project is to collect oral history interviews with adult women who are from or who have lived in Louisiana for a significant period of time. The project is intended to achieve three principal goals:

  • To create an oral history archive that focuses on and honors the diverse experiences of women who are from or who have lived a significant portion of their lives in Louisiana.
  • To conduct interviews that give subjects the opportunity to speak about and/or reflect on the links among sexuality, reproduction and social equality in their own lives.
  • To assess the experiences and opinions of Louisiana women about the provision of reproductive health care and services in the state. If interviewees consent, relevant responses to these specific questions will be shared with the project’s service-learning partner, Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast.

In addition to Long and her students, the other project partners include Julie Mickelberry, public affairs director for Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, and Jennifer Abraham Cramer, director of the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History with LSU Libraries.                         

Interviewers, most of whom are LSU students, will ask women to tell the story of their lives. These life history interviews have the potential to give historians insight into the various ways women in Louisiana have shaped the state’s culture and transformed their lives and society in the process. Women who participate will also have the option to donate their interviews to one of the nation’s oldest and most respected oral history archives, LSU Libraries Special Collections Williams Center for Oral History.

Interview subjects will receive a full transcript of their interview and will also be principal participants in the creation and enrichment of the historical record related to the lives and experiences of Louisiana women.

Participation in the project and any and all responses are voluntary and interview subjects may choose not to answer or later to edit, restrict or withdraw any responses about which they feel concern.

To receive further information or to participate in this oral history project, please contact Long by email atlisteningtolouisianawomen@gmail.com or write to Alecia P. Long, associate professor, LSU Department of History, 223B Himes Hall, Baton Rouge, LA  70803.

For more information, contact Long at 225-578-4458 or aplong@lsu.edu.

 

Ernie  Ballard 
LSU Media Relations
225-578-5685
eballa1@lsu.edu