The IHP held a listening session and discussion of the newly restored archival interview with Chancellor Blenda J. Wilson, who led UM-Dearborn from 1989 to 1992. Wilson was the first African American woman to lead any University of Michigan campus—and the first woman to lead a public university in Michigan.
This program highlighted three selected segments of the April 2000 interview, curated by Inclusive History Project-Dearborn interns and staff for the Restored Voices Oral History Project. Participants also heard reflections on the interview from Professor Georgina Hickey’s Liberal Studies 350 students, IHP-Dearborn Research Director Camron Amin, and IHP research associates Wallace Bowie and Kandra Polatis.
The event featured a preview of a forthcoming documentary from the Inclusive Storytelling Hub that explores the intersection of Chancellor Wilson’s career with the work of artist and founding faculty member of UM-Ann Arbor’s Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, Jon Onye Lockard.
The following three segments from Chancellor Wilson’s interview were the focus of discussions:
- Part 1, 00:05:09-10:32: “First Impressions of the Dearborn Campus & the Interview Process, and, “Impact of the Relationship Between Dearborn and Detroit on UM-Dearborn Campus”
- Part 2, 00:17:28-00:17:56, “Growth of Middle Eastern and Other Marginalized Groups on Campus”
- Part 3, 00:31:04-00:40:41, “Blenda Wilson’s View of Her Legacy at UM-Dearborn”
(Each link will take you to a page showing the “table of contents” for that part of the interview. From there, you can select and play a specific segment.)
Image: Chancellor Blenda Wilson speaking at a luncheon at Fair Lane | University of Michigan Library Digital Collections © Regents of the University of Michigan. This work is licensed under CC BY 4.0.