Oral Histories
A History of Women’s Social Movement Activities
in Los Angeles, 1960-1999
Oral Histories
As a portion of the WSMALA project, with the cooperation of the UCLA Center for Oral History Research (COHR), four WSMALA research team members were trained by Teresa Barnett, Head of COHR, to conduct oral histories with women who have made significant contributions to social movements in Los Angeles. The
interviews were indexed, are being transcribed by the COHR, and will become available in the COHR digital
collection. More oral histories will be added to this WSMALA core
collection at COHR in the coming year. As part of the UCLA Library,
these histories will contribute valuable content to its Collecting LA
initiatives.
INTERVIEWEES
Nancy Angelo is a performance and video artist who contributed to the development of the women’s art movement in Los Angeles and worked in the Women’s
Building, a center for feminist art. Currently residing in San
Francisco, Angelo works as an organizational psychologist and
consultant. Interviewer: Andrey Gordienko
Sondra Hale is Professor Emeritus in the Departments of Anthropology and Gender Studies at UCLA; former Co-editor of The Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies (2006 to 2010), and former Co-Chair of Islamic Studies, as well as a lifelong activist in social justice issues. Early in her career, Hale played a key role in what became a national controversy surrounding the nature and purpose of the field of Women’s Studies in the public university at California State University, Long Beach. Interviewer: Susan McKibben
Sandra Serrano Sewell is executive director of Centro de Niños, a bicultural, bilingual children’s center in Los Angeles, California. She is a lifelong activist
for labor, children, and women’s rights. Interviewer: Jackie Hunt
Bernita Ruth Walker is a leader and community activist in domestic violence prevention. Born and raised in Los Angeles, she has given over thirty
years of service to the Los Angeles community through the establishment
of the Jenesse Center, Project Peacemakers Inc. and the Oluremi
Longhouse sober living facility in addition to numerous state, county
and city board appointments. Interviewer: Dayo T. Spencer-Walters
Helen Astin is a Professor Emeritus in the Graduate School of Education and a Senior Scholar at HERI. She received her Ph.D. in Psychology (Counseling and Social) from the University of Maryland. Her research interests include education and career development of women, faculty performance and rewards, and leadership. Interviewer: Kimberlee Granholm
Myrna Hant received her Ph.D. in Higher Education from UCLA. She was a college administrator as well as an instructor in Women’s Studies at Chapman University. Presently she teaches Women’s Studies courses at Chapman as well as courses focusing on later life issues. In 2006, Dr. Hant donated funds for an annual CSW award, called The Renaissance Award, that rewards the rebirth of academic aspirations among women whose college careers were interrupted or delayed by family and/or career obligations and encourages achievement in the pursuit of a bachelor's degree at UCLA. Interviewer: Kimberlee Granholm
Betty Brooks is a life-long feminist activist in anti-rape work, women’s sexuality, and feminist theology. She pioneered women’s self-defense classes in the Los Angeles area and co-founded the Rape Crisis Hotline and the Los Angeles based organization Women Against Sexual Abuse. She was a co-founder of the Califia Community and taught in the Women’s Studies program at California State University, Long Beach in the 1970s and 1980s. Brooks was also involved in feminist work in the United Church of Christ. In the 1970s she joined a task force on women, through which she advocated for women’s leadership as ministers, gender-inclusive liturgical changes, and the ordination of gay clergy. She was also a contributor to the Feminist Magazine radio program on KPFK Pacifica Radio. Interviewer: Susan McKibben
Sherna Berger Gluck is a pioneer of women’s oral history, as well as a long-time anti-war and anti-Zionist activist. She was a member of the Women’s Liberation Movement, volunteered at the Crenshaw Women’s Center, and co-founded the Westside Women;s Center in 1972. Guck co-founded the Feminist Oral History Project; taught oral history at UCLA and California State University, Long Beach (CSULB); and directed the CSULB Oral History Program until 2005. She is the author of numerous articles on oral history, as well as the books From Parlor to Prison (1976) Rosie the Riveter Revisited: Women, the War and Social Change (1987), Women’s Words: The Feminist Practice of Oral History (1991) (co-edited with Daphne Patai), and An American Feminist in Palestine: The Intifada Years. Oral Histories. Interviewer: Susan McKibben
Nayereh Tohidi is Professor and former Chair at the Department of Gender & Women Studies, California State University, Northridge. She is also a Research Associate at the Center for Near Eastern Studies of UCLA where she has been coordinating the Bilingual Lecture Series on Iran since 2003. She was the Director and Founding Member of the International Committee for Women’s Rights in Iran in the early 1980s and taught at many colleges and universities in the Los Angeles area. She has served as a board member for International Society for Azerbaijani Studies; Institute of Gender, Globalization and Democracy at CSUN; Nairobi’s Forward-Looking Strategies at California State Polytechnic University. She presently serves as the Director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies initiative at CSUN and is working toward the establishment of a new minor in MEIS. Tohidi’s publications include editorship or authorship of Globalization, Gender and Religion: The Politics of Women’s Rights in Catholic and Muslim Contexts; Women in Muslim Societies: Diversity within Unity; and Feminism, Democracy and Islamism in Iran. Interviewer: Susan McKibben
