Oral history is both a discipline and a method for collecting, preserving, and interpreting the voices and memories of individuals, communities, and firsthand accounts of past events. Originating in the oral traditions of cultures worldwide, oral history is the oldest form of historical inquiry and predates written language. The lead title of this panel, “touching history,” highlights relational connections with history through intangible experiences such as oral testimony, cultural practices, and embodied knowledge, rather than through physical artifacts that often represent abstract history. Touching history involves experiencing the past by hearing memories and engaging with people whose lives embody historical moments.
PRESENTATION 1:
Angelita D. Reyes: “Reaching to Touch History: Spaces Between Theory and Elder Oral History Practices on Video.” Based on collaborative work with filmmakers and elderly African American community members in a rural Virginia community, this presentation highlights culturally responsive interviewing, collaboration, and the preservation of elders’ voices through video as a valuable archival resource. Reference will be made to the “table conversations” of Baha’i pilgrims—informal yet profound discussions with central figures of the Baha’i Faith during the 1950s in Haifa, Israel. Similar to the process of oral history, the table conversations, or “pilgrim notes,” began as informal spoken exchanges, were later transcribed, and are now preserved and archived as historical documents.
Dr. Angelita D. Reyes is professor emerita in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. Her pivotal work, Mothering Across Cultures: Postcolonial Representations, engages historical inquiry and interdisciplinary humanities to analyze “mothering” as a framework for Black women’s intellectual and cultural traditions in Africa and the African diaspora. Reyes has also edited books and articles on race, class, and gender for social justice. Her articles have appeared in numerous multidisciplinary publications.
Dr. Reyes holds a master’s degree in international education from New York University and a PhD in comparative literature and anthropology from The University of Iowa.
PRESENTATION 2:
Gwen Etter-Lewis: “Capturing a Moment of Historic Portent: Oral History as a Catalyst for Social Change.” This paper is based on my study of the Baha’i response to police murders in 2020 using oral history methodology. The study entitled “Anti-Black Racism: A Baha’i Response” was published in The Baha’i Faith and African American Studies (2023).
Gwen Etter-Lewis has a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Michigan. She is professor emerita at Miami University of Ohio, where she taught linguistics, Black World Studies, and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies. She is the author of My Soul is My Own: Narratives of African American Women in the Professions; coauthor with Richard W. Thomas, Lights of the Spirit: Historical Portraits of Black Baha’is in North America, 1898-2000; and co-editor with Michele Foster, Unrelated Kin: Race and Gender in Women’s Personal Narratives. Recently she authored a biography for young people, Attorney for Racial Justice: The Story of Elsie Austin.
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