LSU's Reilly Center Partners With Tulane University to Preserve the Legacies of Statewide Political Women
Oral histories of women in political leadership are being collected by the Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs at LSU's Manship School of Mass Communication and the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College Institute at Tulane University.
The reach and audience of the Louisiana Women in Politics Oral History Project will grow thanks to this collaboration. This work compiles the biographies of influential women in Louisiana politics who were instrumental in shaping the state's history. In addition, it records introspections on their professional lives and strategies for dealing with adversity. Their experiences will be helpful to researchers and women who are thinking about entering politics in the future.
“We have been looking forward to this collaboration for some time. Giving our students this kind of research opportunity is precisely the mission of Newcomb Institute, and we look forward to illuminating the many stories of Louisiana trailblazers,” said Newcomb Institute’s Director of Research, Anna M. Mahoney.
The Newcomb Institute has been at the forefront of efforts to promote gender equality and recognise the achievements of women in business, politics, and other fields for decades. The Department of History at Xavier University of Louisiana and the Waggonner Center at Louisiana Tech University are already involved in the initiative, and now the Newcomb Institute has joined them.
Director of the LSU Reilly Center Jenée Slocum remarked on the importance of having partners like Tulane's Newcomb Institute to preserve the experiences of women who have played significant policy roles across Louisiana. “We are excited to have them on board.”
The primary repository for the recordings is the T. Harry Williams Center of the LSU Libraries, with additional storage facilities located across the state. Eventually, the collection may expand to include the oral histories of other women who have attained political power in the future.
The mission of the Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs is to investigate pressing problems where media coverage and public policy interact through collaborative research and practical action. Because of its multidisciplinary nature, it is able to bring together leading researchers and thinkers from a wide range of disciplines for fruitful discussion and collaboration. The goal is to stimulate people to learn more, think more critically, solve more problems, and act more creatively in their communities. The primary goal of the Center is to help further the Manship School's position as a national and state leader in the fields of media and politics.
Due to its strong focus on media and public affairs, LSU's Manship School of Mass Communication is consistently ranked among the best collegiate communication programs in the country.
It provides four graduate degree programs including a Master of Mass Communication, a Doctor of Philosophy in Media and Public Affairs, a Certificate of Strategic Communication, and a dual Master of Mass Communication and Juris Doctor degree in addition to its undergraduate degrees in public relations, journalism, political communication, digital advertising, and pre-law.