Rebecca Swann-Jackson is a doctoral candidate in Montclair State University’s (MSU) Family Science and Human Development program. For her doctoral dissertation, she is doing an autoethnography of her family, including critical reflection, journaling, the collection and review of photographs and historical documents (e.g., genealogical records, obituaries, documents), and oral history interviews with 13 family members across four generations. This autoethnography documents her family’s construction and transmission of values. It combines personal experience, memory, and storytelling with existing research, theory and cultural analysis of what it means to be a Black family living through the Civil Rights and Women’s Movements.
In what seems like a past life, this novice oral history scholar earned a Masters degree in Education with a concentration in Educational Statistics, Measurement, and Evaluation from Rutgers University and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Rebecca is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Research and Evaluation on Education and Human Services directing research and evaluation projects for faculty, school districts, and state agencies. She lives with her husband and two sons in New Jersey.
