Jackson Family Chair Lecture | "Embodied Encuentros: Oral History Archives of Latinas/os/es experiences" ft. Dr. Elena Foulis

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, the Jackson Family Chair presents Dr. Elena Foulis, who will provide a lecture titled Embodied Encuentros: Oral History Archives of Latinas/os/es experiences.

The lecture will be held on September 24th, 2026 at 3:30 pm. 

Embodied Encuentros: Oral History Archives of Latinas/os/es Experiences

Embodied Encuentros is a contribution to oral history scholarship and praxis, that offers the first comprehensive conceptual framework for engaging Latina/o/e communities through culturally grounded and ethically driven methodologies. In this talk, Foulis will discuss centering community knowledge and experience by foregrounding linguistic and cultural practices, gender, and race as integral components of oral history work. She offers a practical and theoretical guidance for involving students in ethical research practices, collecting dynamic and evolving oral histories, and implementing a language justice approach that recognizes linguistic oppression while affirming translanguaging and bilingualism as essential and generative practices.

In Embodied Encuentros, she emphasizes digital archives and multimedia storytelling as sites for community engagement. She positions oral history archives as living, participatory spaces, and the book demonstrates how such projects can foster pláticas—critical dialogues that sustain community knowledge, connection, and creativity. Through these approaches, Embodied Encuentros advances equitable, culturally sustaining practices that position oral history as a transformative tool for and with Latina/o/e communities.

Elena Foulis is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and interim Director of the Institute of Oral History. She has directed the oral history initiative Oral Narratives of Latin@s in Ohio (ONLO) since 2014, an ongoing project that has gathered more than 160 video-recorded narratives. Foulis’s research centers on Latina/o/e voices and linguistic practices, with particular attention to oral history and performance as modes of knowledge production. She is also the host and producer of the Latin@ Stories podcast, which invites audiences to engage with local Latina/o/e experiences while amplifying the voices of these communities more broadly.

Foulis is the author and co-editor of Working en comunidad: Service-Learning and Community Engagement with U.S. Latinas/os/es (University of Arizona Press, 2024) and Embodied Encuentros: Oral History Archives of Latinas/os/es Experiences (Ohio State University Press, 2026). She is an engaged scholar committed to reaching both academic and non-academic audiences through her writing, presentations, and public humanities projects.