A two-semester independent, interdisciplinary, and intergenerational learning experience open to students across all majors. The goal of Spelman Independent Scholars (SIS) is to enhance students' critical writing and thinking skills. It also allows students the opportunity to share research and grow in griot knowledge.
In addition to learning sessions with the SIS faculty mentor, students are exposed to lectures by guest scholars, including gerontologists, oral historians, museum curators, and physician-researchers. Through one-on-one independent student relationships and class seminars, the unique yearlong program allows and entrusts students to solicit, understand and archive stories of African-American women elders. A global component of SIS has included oral history research in Accra, Ghana; Benin, West Africa; and Kingston, Jamaica.
"You have asked me to talk about my life. You have given me joy." - Judia Mae Ferrell to SIS
Dr. Gayles is the founding director of the SIS Oral History Project and faculty mentor for Spelman's Independent Scholars.
She earned a B.A. in English from LeMoyne College, an M.A. in American Literature from Boston University (as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow), and a Ph.D. in American Studies from Emory University.
She was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Meadville-Lombard Theological School of the University of Chicago and named the CASE Professor of Teaching Excellence for the State of Georgia.
"If our institutions are going to create critical thinkers, we must impress upon students the connections between the past, present and future,” Gloria Wade-Gayles, Ph.D., founding director of the SIS Oral History Project, said. Every present moment is influenced by past moments. The past gives us informed direction as we move to the future."
"When you see an older woman dancing, don't ask why. Dance, too." - SIS Proverb
The SIS Oral History Project has produced two student-reported and edited anthologies: “Their Memories, Our Treasure: Conversations with African American Women," with a third on the way as the independent study program, founded in August 2001, enters its second decade.