Heritage Education Resources

HER continues to wait to hear from foundations regarding requests for operational and project support. This waiting is frustrating, but I suppose it is part of the game.

In the meantime, transcribing continues and I hope to finish by the end of next week. I may set up an interview in May, and would like to set up more for June. Millie says she can find more women in the Jackson/Washington/Holmes county area, and I would like to identify women in other counties.

I started transcribing B and expect to be working on her for awhile. Like I wrote before, hers was a three hour interview where we ran out of tape! What I was able to record was a document of incredible suffering and survival.

HER has come to the point where it can no longer be totally funded by personal funds. I ask fellow bloggers for their support of an organization devoted to providing service revolving around heritage and cultural diversity. The current project is the domestic violence project, and all funds will be applied to supplies and travel. For more information on how to contribute contact me at
herjer@earthlink.net

I've been reading John Dewey and have been thinking about how to apply the lessons of his university school to developing folklife in education residencies. What I have to do is approach the kids to find out what kinds of traditions they are interested in exploring. The idea is to act on the interests of the kids, but within a framework, in this case traditions.

It is interesting how Dewey is best known for his work in education, but he didn't work in education all that long. His theory, however, was controversial and very different from the prevailing work in educational psychology. He left Chicago in a huff and moved over to Columbia University where the prevailing theories were born. I wonder if he interacted with that group of people ever.

This week I will begin transcribing again, working on B. She is very dramatic, very much the oppostie of P. I wonder how it will go.

I have finished P's transcript and am taking a break. I am thinking of a new project to add to this work in domestic violence, and in fact it is informed by this project.

What I want to do is undertake a course of study of John Dewey and pragmatism. Pragmatism is similar in approach to relativism and as a folklorist, I practice relative thinking. What I want to learn here is the nature of knowing, the nature of experiencing. Dewey's thought is at the forefront here, and I want to explore this in greater depth. I give myself the summer to do this.

I hope that I can get Jeff Milligan a professor of educational inquiry to be my guide post. He is going to be working in the Phillipines this summer, so what I hope is that we can stay in touch by e-mail. I hope he will help me out.

I've spent the day off and on transcribing P's recording of her experiences of abuse and survival. What amazes me about the women I've been working with is their resolve to leave their abusive situations, although it often times takes a number of tries. Survival is a difficult task, and these women are strong cases in point. I can't imagine being in their shoes. I can't at all.

People have asked me why I'm doing this project and my answer is long and convoluted. As a folklorlist I am interested in how people express themselves when it comes to what is important to them. Surviving abuse is important. And there is a story to be told.

When I meet these women and record their stories I am interested in the experience and how it is related. You can see it in many ways, from gesturing hands to the constant use of phrases like "Do you understand?" I don't know if I will ever completely understand, but I am trtrying.

I just sent off the Introduction to Millie's poems to
www.ariga.com. Millie talks a lot about how her poems/letters deal with feelings and emotions, and this is reflected in the Introduction. Again, the site for the poems is
www.ariga.com/southernjourney/millie-index.shtml

The collection of poems, once compete, will have an introduction informed by Millie and written by me. This too will be on www.ariga.com

Millie Jackson, a prose poet from Cottondale, FL has been a great help on the domestic violence project. She has identified people to interview and is always a great source of support.

Millie Jackson, a woman from Cottondale, FL has been very helpful with the domestic violence project. She has hooked me up with a number of women to interview and is sharing her own story through an autobiography she is writing.
Millie is also a painter and a poet. Her poems, Travels Through Life, are available from
www.ariga.com.

e-mail address (I'm getting it slow but sure)
herjer@earthlink.net

Let's try this link thing again. To access Southern Journeys go to www.ariga.com/southernjourney

To contact Jan Rosenberg at Heritage Education Resources, go to herjer@earthlink.net

posted by Jan  # 1:15 PM

HER has just been introduced to a woman, P, who has written a series of poems regarding her abusive situation. If possible, these will be included in the book on domestic violence in north Florida.

It is very exciting to find these women. As a friend said, "Way makes way,: and with this project it is true as I meet one woman who then tells me about another woman, and the process goes on. For more information on the domestic violence project,stay tuned to this blog. If you want to contact me directly, e-mail me at

Heritage Education Resources links


Southern Journey is my exploration of concepts of home in 11 southern states from 1999-2000. It is based on interviews with photo documentation.

herjer@earthlink.net is my e-mail address.

In 1999-2000 Heritage Education Resources conducted field research in 11 southern states to learn what people thought when they heard the word home. The results of this research was published as Southern Journeys: Chronicles of Home and is available on www. ariga.com/southern journey.

What the HER Domestic Violence Project is about.

Domestic violence is at epidemic proportions in the world today. While there are developing venues for dealing with domestic violence, such as federal legislation and a growing network of shelters and services, women's voices often are limited. We need to listen to what women have to say about their experiences with battering and survival.

The Heritage Education Resources Domestic Violence Project is an effort to record women's voices. It is currently focused on north Florida where in 2002 over 17,000 cases of domestic violence were reported to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The project is relatively simple, logistically. Women in the north Florida region who have experienced domestic violence are identified and interviewed. This is their opportunity to "tell their story," uninterrupted and unedited. The stories are then transcribed and returned to the women for editing and correction.

The finished interviews will be included in an anthology, prefaced with an introduction on policy, legal, social, and cultural issues related to rural domestic violence. Each story will be prefaced with a biographical sketch on the teller and will end with a series of discussion questions.

HER is seeking a publisher for this project as well as additional funding to continue interviews.

The interview process is very intense. These women's stories do not have fairy tale qualities and are told with passion and emotion. As a fieldworker I have become a vessel, holding these stories intact. I am also working to serve as a conduit, a channel through which these stories can travel and be used for the public good.

For more information on this project, contact Jan Rosenberg at herjer@earthlink.net.

Welcome to Heritage Education Resources (HER). HERwas founded in 1995 by folklorist Jan Rosenberg, PhD. The mission of the organization is to develop and provide services and resource materials for the exploration of heritage and cultural diversity.

HER works in schools, it works in the community. Currently HER is working on a project to document women's stories of abuse and survival in north Florida. The goal of the project is to publish an anthology that can be used in the college classroom and by the general public.

If you would like more information on HER, contact Jan Rosenberg at herjer@earthlink.net