Date Published:
The Collected Lady Eagle Oral History Project-Training Research Acumen (CLEOPATRA) of Black women NCCU graduates with justice-based careers launched on March 1, 2025. This is NCCU's first oral history archive. Forty-three students have interviewed twenty-two women since October of 2023.
Students enroll in a Women's Studies class, Digital Archival Research in Women's History, where they watch four documentary films, take three field trips (including to NCCU's physical archive), and read three books (paid for by the Mellon Foundation, which funded this $500,000 four-year grant). At the end of each term, the students work in pairs to identify and research an NCCU alumna, compose questions, record her, transcribe the interview, and create a visual slide show, which they present. They earn a $1,600 stipend since the class demands many hours devoted to recording, transcribing, and interviewing. The scholars learn and apply digital storytelling skills as they chronicle the ways these women discovered their passion for justice and how they became active in equality, civil rights, and freedom-seeking movements to combat intersectional racism and sexism.
Please enjoy diving into the archive; look, listen, and learn about the impressive legacies of these ladies' commitment to social justice, educational equity, gender equality, public health advocacy, and food justice. If you know women who should be interviewed in the future, contact the project director, Rachelle Gold ([email protected]). The class will be taught twice a year through Spring 2027, with a goal of interviewing 60 justice-seekers. We are seeking 16 students for Fall 2025, taught over two sections. To compete, students must have a 2.8 GPA and write an application essay.
We will host a catered showcase at the end of April where twenty students from this semester will present ten more oral history interviews.
Explore the Women's History Archive
Happy Women's History Month!
Contact Person:
Rachelle Gold