Historic Southern Indiana

Katy Ehlman Receives Darrel Bigham Historic Southern Indiana Faculty Engagement Fellowship

Ehlman Katy Ehlman, assistant professor of gerontology in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, is the second recipient of the Darrel Bigham Historic Southern Indiana Faculty Engagement Fellowship. Ehlman's project, Preservation Through the Generations, utilizes oral history interviews with an elderly population.

Students enrolled in Gerontology 315 in Summer 2009 and Fall 2009 will conduct oral history interviews with family members and friends over the age of 75. The oral history interviews will documents the life stories of the interviewees placing special emphasis on various aspects of their life as recalled in the early twentieth century of Southern Indiana. The oral history interviews will be digitally recorded, transcribed, and archived in the USI Rice Library. They will be made available on the USI Library Archives website and linked to various other Indiana historical websites. The project also calls for producing a display promoting Preservation Through the Generations to be used in the Rice Library and/or the College of Nursing and Health Professions. In addition, the Evansville Museum of Art, History, and Science will utilize the digitally recorded oral interviews for an exhibit on early to mid-twentieth century life in Southern Indiana.

The Darrel Bigham Faculty Engagement Fellowship provides one $4,000 salary stipend to support scholarly work in the areas of consulting, research, service learning, or creation of workshops/institutes by USI faculty in an area that will benefit the HSI region and constituents. The award was named for Dr. Darrel Bigham, founding director of Historic Southern Indiana and professor of history, to honor his legacy as a USI pioneer in regional engagement and his service to the University and the region. Bigham retired from the University in June 2008.

Click this link to hear an audio interview with Katy Ehlman on NPR: http://health.usi.edu/HealthyAging/assets/images/110209ehlman.mp3

Historic Southern Indiana, an outreach and engagement project of USI, was created in 1986 to serve the southernmost 26 counties of Indiana. Its goals are to identify, preserve, protect, enhance, and promote the historical, natural, and recreational resources of the region. It seeks to implement those goals through programs in historic preservation, history education, heritage tourism, community development, and scenic byways. Its office is a part of Extended Services

8600 University Boulevard - Evansville, IN 47712-3596 - 812/464-8600