Hollins Women Making Change:
Life Stories of Hollins Alumnae
Spring 2006
Hollins
University
Benita Bobo '06
Kaley Birch '08
Crystal Clusiau '08
Hieu Pham '06
Mara Robbins '08
Kiki Lynskey '06
Miranda Dennis '08
Sarah Porter '07
Women's Leadership & Social Change Conference Spring 2006
Description of the Project
Hollins Women Making Change is a collaborative faculty/student research project initiated by Dr. LeeRay M. Costa, Hollins University. In this project, we seek to discover the numerous ways in which Hollins women have engaged in activism and effected social change in the world. Student and faculty researchers conduct life history interviews with Hollins alumnae, in which discussions cover a wide array of life stories. Alumnae share with their interlocutors their meanings of activism and social change, and what inspired them to engage in such work in the first place.
These stories have multiple purposes: to educate Hollins students and other members of the Hollins community, to inspire others to act, and to help us better understand how to cultivate a commitment to social change and leadership among today's young women.
We hope that in these stories shared by Hollins women you will find inspiration and hope.
"...Because I got to learn about someone so strong
and brave in a light not all people can experience, I found the strength
and courage to stand up for myself and my beliefs and reflect on that in
an entirely new way." -- Danielle Walker '07
Class Photo: Kiki Lynskey, Sarah Porter, Mara Robbins, Miranda
Dennis, Sarah McCaig, Kaley Birch, Hieu Pham, Crystal Clusiau, Prof.
LeeRay Costa (missing: Benita Bobo, Danielle Walker)
Found Poem
From: Narrative Analysis, by Catherine Kohler Riessman
There is a choice in what I notice,
their chant, the women, and my marvel.
Language makes them real.
Meaning is constituted in very different ways.
What might have seemed nowhere in the past
is likely to be somewhere in the present or future.
I prefer to think of research as a chorus of voices
always responding to the question "and then what happened?"
our interpretations are partial, alternative truths.
I found myself not wanting to fragment.
The metaphor lends coherence, parallel structure and sound.
There is a choice in what I notice.
Poetry builds on what we do all the time,
fossilizes and ritualizes everyday speech,
the breach in the ordinary, expected course of a human life.
~Mara Eve Robbins '08
March 1, 2006
This website was created by LeeRay M. Costa and is maintained together with her students in ANTH/WS 220, Spring 2006.
Last update: May 17, 2006.