Emory Oral History Program: Meet Our Staff

Jonathan Coulis, PhD

Oral History Program Coordinator

Oral history offers an incredibly diverse field centered around the firm belief that the stories of people matter and should be heard and preserved. Individual experiences, narrated in ones their own words, are powerful. They allow people to reflect on their past and present, delve into the operations of living memory, and speak to future researchers, educators, and interested parties. My role is to promote oral history at Emory and in Atlanta through workshops, consultations, partnerships, and project development. At the Emory Oral History Program, we aim to continually expand our efforts as oral history creators and simultaneously contribute to the oral history community at Emory University and beyond.

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Taha Firdous Shah

Senior Graduate Assistant

Taha Firdous Shah is a Senior Graduate Assistant at Emory Oral History Program and a PhD Student at the Department of Religion at Emory. Her work is at the convergence of Islamic studies, anthropology, and peace studies in South Asia, particularly Kashmir. Her interest in oral history stems from its capacity to unveil narratives that diverge from conventional historical frameworks, thus unveiling the intricate dynamics of politics, memory, and historiographical representation. By focusing on the lived experiences of common people, Taha believes that oral history illuminates the multifaceted nature of historical discourse, offering alternative perspectives that enrich our understanding of the past and its socio-political complexities. 

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Jaanaki Radhakrishnan is an undergraduate completing a joint major in Anthropology and Religion and minoring in Neuroethics. She is passionate about about abolitionist worldbuilding and childcare work, understanding the two to be interconnected tasks. Her research focuses on nature centered play pedagogies in Black early childhood education spaces as liberation methodology and tools of community transformation. Jaanaki is also particularly interested in understanding the production of cultural narratives and uplifting counterhegemonic lived experience. She joined EOHP in 2023 and believes deeply in oral history’s capacity to restore agency, preserve ancestral knowledge, and construct liberatory collective memory. 

Ezra Packard

Ezra is an undergraduate student studying Anthropology, Sustainability, and Portuguese. They are interested in creationing sustainable urban systems and equitable community spaces and appreciate the important role of storytelling in understanding larger historical movements or social systems through the diversity of human experience. Ezra joined the EOHP in 2022, and hopes to promote and preserve stories that can broaden our understandings of the world and each other. 

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Sana Malik Noon

Graduate Fellow

Sana Malik Noon is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology, and a Rose Libraries Fellow for 2024-2025. Her research engages scholarship on social movements, feminist ethnography, and the anthropology of rights in the Muslim world. Sana's dissertation is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in urban Pakistan. It investigates the agential practices of women's rights activists and ordinary women across generation, age, and class, and their role in shaping emerging political landscapes in urban Pakistan.

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Ari Quan

Ari Quan (he/she/they) is an undergraduate student studying English and Creative Writing. They also are majoring in American Studies with a focus on narratives of the American Dream. Coming from a family of immigrants, Ari is inspired by the complexities of the United Sates: How can the country fueled by migrant exploitation yet also be a beacon of social mobility, liberty, security, etc.? Ari joined the EOHP in 2024 because they understand how oral histories counter common historical practices of extracting statistics from communities. Ari believes oral histories can be holistic tools of empowerment and give voice to those who are often reduced to trends and numbers. 

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Nica Leung

Nica Leung is an undergraduate student studying anthropology and political science. Their interest in story-telling, narratives, and ethnographic work led them to join the EOHP as an oral history assistant. They are passionate about social change, resistance, and the study of memory and representation.

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