Newswise — UA Little Rock’s Center for Arkansas History and Culture (CAHC) has unveiled a new highlighting the work of , a longtime professor at UA Little Rock and a leading figure in Arkansas oral history.
The exhibit provides digital access to a vast collection of interviews conducted by Strickland, professor emeritus of English, particularly focusing on Arkansas women authors and Vietnamese refugees entering the U.S. after the Vietnam War.
Dr. Jess Porter, executive director of CAHC, emphasized the significance of the project, which was spearheaded by head archivist Emily Summers along with archivist Dr. Amanda McQueen and a team of students.
“It’s a remarkable online exhibit that showcases just one part of Dr. Strickland’s career,” Porter said. “The stories she captured provide an invaluable perspective on Arkansas history, and now, thanks to this digitization effort, they are accessible to a global audience.”
Strickland taught at UA Little Rock from 1959 to 2001 and was a trailblazer in English and oral history. In 1973, she founded and chaired the university’s oral history program, recognizing the importance of documenting personal narratives that might otherwise be lost.
Over the years, she collected extensive interviews with female authors from Arkansas and key historical events. One of her most notable efforts involved interviewing Vietnamese refugees at Fort Chaffee, a military base in Arkansas that served as a resettlement camp following the end of the Vietnam War.
“These interviews capture an extraordinary moment in history,” Summers said. “Strickland and her team spoke with over 200 refugees and camp officials about their experiences, including what life was like in Vietnam, their journey to the U.S., and their hopes for the future. She even conducted follow-up interviews a decade later to track how their lives had changed.”
In 2022, CAHC received a grant from the Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council to digitize Strickland’s collection, which consists of 36 boxes of materials, 419 audio recordings, and numerous transcripts. The grant prioritized the preservation of the Vietnamese refugee interviews, but the digitization process also included Strickland’s broader oral history work, including her interviews with women involved in Arkansas politics, such as judges, legislators, campaign volunteers, and attendees of the 1977 International Women’s Year Conference in Houston.
“This is an incredible resource,” Porter said. “The exhibit brings together oral histories, photographs, maps, and educational materials in a way that makes history come alive. Hearing people’s voices—their emotions, their reflections—adds a powerful dimension to our understanding of the past.”
Summers echoed this sentiment, noting that Strickland’s work provides a deeply personal connection to history.
“A lot of history is preserved through the written word, but listening to someone tell their own story by hearing their voice and inflections makes it so much more real,” she said.
Strickland also completed many articles to preserve the history of Arkansan Hattie Wyatt Caraway, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 1931 to fill the vacancy left by the death of her husband. Caraway was the second woman to serve in the Senate and became the first woman elected to serve in the Senate, the first woman to chair a Senate committee, and the first woman to preside officially over the Senate.
In addition to her contributions to oral history, Strickland was a poet and a champion of the literary arts. She served as president of the Poets Roundtable of Arkansas and had a special fondness for haikus, previously serving as associate editor of Simply Haiku and editor of the Haiku Society of America newsletter.
The online exhibit is now accessible to the public. It provides a unique opportunity to explore Strickland’s research and hear firsthand accounts of significant moments in Arkansas history. Visit the to explore the exhibit.
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