Department of Sociology
Wichita State Sociologist, Twyla Hill and Professor of Dance, Cheyla Clawson, Collaborate to Win NCFR Award
Dr. Twyla Hill, Professor of Sociology, and Cheyla Clawson, Associate Director for the School of Performing Arts & Assistant Professor of Dance (and a graduate of the WSU Sociology Master’s program), were the recipients of the Professional Issues in Aging award from the National Council on Family Relations in the fall of 2021. Hill and Clawson won the award for their paper, “Choreographing Matrilineal Memories by Combining Oral History Interviews and Dance.” This project involved in-depth interviews with older women, in which respondents were asked about their memories of their mothers and grandmothers. Those interviews were recorded and coded. Student choreographers and dancers at Wichita State drew upon the coded interview transcripts to create dance movements based on the themes that emerged in the interviews. Winners for this award were selected “based on links between the problem posed and knowledge in the field, appropriateness of research approach, relevance and significance of findings, linkages between research and application, quality of writing, and importance of research to the field.”
