Lost Voices



 

The Students

Who are we? Five women thrown together for fifteen classes in four weeks to complete what seemed like an impossible project. We were so different. There was so much we didn’t know. Our instructors weren’t very helpful--they kept saying that they weren’t sure how to do it either. We had trouble learning to work together/divide tasks/define our own separate spheres but stay coordinated. We stayed up late and came in early. We called each other up and complained. We lived, ate and went to the bathroom with this project. It has been a labor of love and historical commitment.

CRYSTAL GAIL LUNSFORD. (082176@msn.com)

Sociology major with a minor in women’s studies;
someday to be a feminist sociology professor;

this class has given me a sense of the unity that can be created among women/it has allowed me to open up the history of these women and place them in history/ it has given me an understanding of each of these women/I have discovered the purpose of oral history.

 

RACHEL CHIRISTINE LUTHER. (hatcher3@marshall.edu)

Math and Social Studies Education major;
likes to read (particularly Laura Ingalls Wilder), cross stitch and play around on the web;

someday to be a teacher who breaks down stereotypes of women in math and to be the best wife I can be, and a mother who raises her kids to do right; married and a Christian;

I love West Virginia/it is the most beautiful place in the country/no matter where I go, it will always be a part of me/West Virginia runs through my blood.

 

TAMARA WILLENE MARTIN. (martin23@marshall.edu)

Graduating Senior in biology;
someday to be a veterinarian and be able to help save our dying planet;

being a black woman, this project means so much to me/this project shows the world that black women are also important to learn about;

I feel that I have participated in a phenomenal thing/we have put together an important part of history.

 

SERENA LYNN STARCHER. (starche5@marshall.edu)

Chemistry and math education major;

someday to teach at my alma mater and get my master’s degree while being a wonderful wife and a mother and friend to my children, as my mother has been to me;

this project has taught me that much of "actual" history is left out of the books;

I have overcome the bad stereotype of women in West Virginia/I am not lazy, ignorant, unmotivated, barefoot or pregnant.

BETH DARBY UPTON. (bupton9369@aol.com)

English major who gardens, tutors, parents three children, and writes in my journals;
someday to finish my degree and gather oral histories of relatives;
the highlight of this project was interviewing Dr. Ancella Bickley/she is an inspiration.

The Instructors

Who are we? Two women who shared a dream of that this web site could happen. We come at the same questions in two very different ways. We share a commitment to explore the liberating potentials of the new technology. We love our students and believe in them--and are rarely disappointed.

LYNDA ANN EWEN (ewen@marshall.edu)

Professor of Sociology and Director of the Oral History of Appalachia Program;

someday to see the revolution that changes us into a more equal world where we respect each other and our earth and where diversity flourishes in all its marvelous dimensions.

 

DOLORES JOHNSON (johnsond@marshall.edu)

Professor of English and Director of Writing Programs;

my dream is to share even more the unwritten histories
that increase the truths about the lives of m people.