Questions of Identity As An Oral Historian-Activist
It is because of this lapse in memory that I feel I can identify as an historian-activist, but have trouble identifying as an activist, a singular designator that in its solitary stance, separates my scholarly work from my activism. My reluctance to identify as an activist alone also stems from an unwillingness to take on the signifier that other individuals, who do significant organizing and who arrive on campus without the privileges I have as a white student, also take on. As an historian-activist, I have attempted to begin this inquiry with assumptions that I could test and tease out, subject those assumptions to meticulous research, and then, in possession of new data and interpretations, take the last step that most scholars do not take and translate those findings into action. Presenting this work in a digital small format is one portion of translating my research into action. I hope, in extending this project, to be more deliberate in making connections between my research and the work I do in organizing. My goal as an historian is to understand how the past influences the present, though that in itself will not suffice as action, even if my research findings are shared with individuals that can have an impact on our shared communities of study and work.[3]
As this project continues, I want to be able to reconcile these identities amongst themselves as much as I hope to organize them on the page in a narrative. “Understanding how the past weighs on the present itself” will not “resolve our current dilemmas,” Jacquelyn Dowd Hall writes in her generative article, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past.” Understanding too, that education is a political act, does not accordingly require me to act. However, with those beliefs as my foundation, I feel equip to move forward and to delineate my responsibilities as a historian, as a possible activist, and certainly, as an historian-activist. I feel with time I might be able to limn how my future self and work engages in action against forms and processes of oppression in my communities. I feel as though I could organize myself and my identities alongside and separate from my scholarship and my activism.[4]
But, Hall continues: “Historians can and must play a central role in a struggle that turns so centrally on understanding the legacy of the past...we cannot settle for simple dichotomies...we must forego easy closure and satisfying upward or downward arcs.” Though Hall is describing how to tell historical narratives “truly and effectively,” I want to borrow her instructions not to simplify or formulize as a way to guide me through the self-reflective process of understanding my relationships with my scholarship and activism. Striving to place and define my identities explicitly or exactly will not convey “what it means to have lived through an undefeated but unfinished revolution.” As this study continues, I want to be able to use oral history practice as a way to question my desire to organize myself and my relationships to my scholarship and to my activism.[5]
[1] Freire, Paulo, The Politics of Education: Culture, Power, and Liberation, South Hadley, Massachusetts: Bergin & Garvey, 1985.
[2] Anyon, Jean with Michael Dumas, Darla Linville, Kathleen Nolan, Madeline Perez, Eve Tuck, Jen Weiss, Theory and Educational Research: Toward Critical Social Explanation, New York: Routledge, 2009.
[3] Goldrick-Rab, Sara, “On Scholarly Activism,” Contexts, Guest Blog Post, December 4, 2014.
[4] Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” The Journal of American History 91.4 (2005): 1262.
[5] Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” The Journal of American History 91.4 (2005): 1263.
