12/02/2025
In November, Dr. Reanae McNeal, assistant professor of Africana Studies and Gender, Womenâs, and Sexuality Studies, curated the exhibition âOklahoma Freedwomen: Survivance, Land Memory, and Afro-Indigenous (Her)storiesâ, which was on display in Willard Hall. The exhibition highlighted the lives of Oklahoma Freedwomen â specifically the Freedwomen formerly enslaved by the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole nations. In the theme of a patchwork quilt, the interactive exhibit was made up of multiple
posters that stitched together a variety of historical and depictive images and narrative excerpts from the interviews of Cherokee Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminole Freedwomen collected in the 1930s.Â
âThis is an important example of the amazing humanities research being conducted at OSU,â said Dr. Jennifer Borland, director of the OSU Center for the Humanities. âDr. McNealâs research illuminates important histories relevant to Oklahoma through a powerful and creative approach that foregrounds these womenâs experiences and stories through images, archival documents and oral histories. Audiences should learn not only about the exhibit and it research, but also about Dr. McNealâs unique approach and methodology, which foregrounds memory, healing and survival through artistic interpretation.â
Learn more about Dr. McNealâs work at the exhibitionâs companion website (link in our bio). đ