Director, professor, and author Dr. Peggy Douglas was awarded the Stetson Kennedy Vox Populi Award this past week by the Oral History Association in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The award honors those whose work in oral history has contributed to the advancement of human rights and can be taken as a significant achievement.
Dr. Douglas shares the award this year with Voice of Witness, an organization dedicated to the collection of oral history and its applications for social justice.
“I am grateful to the Oral History Association and the Stetson Kennedy Foundation for this award, and to my colleagues, partners, narrators, and community members whose experiences and collaboration shape my work every day." Says Dr. Douglas. "Additionally, I want to thank ArtsBuild, Barking Legs Theater, Mark Making, Obvious Dad, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and Walnut Street Publishing for providing the resources to amplify voices of marginalized people on stage.”
Over the course of her career, Dr. Douglas has worked to amplify marginalized peoples through art, theater, and education. As Oral History Director at Southern Exposure, she has worked within the framework of Applied Theater to stage poetic monologues and theatrical performances representing a diverse cross-section of the local community, including but not limited to the LGBTQ+, black, and working-class experience, along with other marginalized perspectives of the Chattanooga area.
An anthology of these personal experiences, recorded and expressed through poetry by Dr. Douglas, can be found in her recently published book titled We Speak: Voices from Chattanooga's Disregarded.
Additionally, as an adjunct professor, she instructs the UTC Honors College in Oral History for Social Justice, passing on her knowledge and experience to the upcoming generation of historians, activists, and responsible citizens.
Peggy's work can be experienced firsthand through her poetry collection and the continued work of Southern Exposure. Southern Exposure's theater season will resume in March, 2025.
