Priscilla Oaks

April 15, 1924- Sept 24, 1985

Early Life

Priscilla Diana Oaks, originally Priscilla Cohen before, was born in Brookline, Massachusetts on April 15, 1924 to parents of Jewish-Russian descent. Her interest in community oriented work began to take form as a student at Brookline High School between 1938 and 1941. She was involved in an array of organizations, including the English club and the Red Cross. Her listed passions of poetry and writing were harbingers of her future career as a scholar.

Photos come from Cohen's high school senior yearbook found on Ancestry.com

College

After graduating high school, Cohen went on to attend Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Radcliffe, Cohen became fascinated with literature pieces from all over the world. Cohen worked for the school's newspaper as an editor while earning her undergraduate degree. While attending Radcliffe, Cohen married Henry J. Shames on July 14, 1945 to become Priscilla Shames. The Shames went on to have three daughters and one son. Finishing her undergraduate at Radcliffe, the two moved to Los Angeles county where Priscilla Shames would attend and receive a doctorate from UCLA.

Images show the seals of Radcliffe University and UCLA

Adulthood

Teaching

Shames’ career led her and her family to relocate to Los Angeles County, California. She earned a doctorate from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Though there was no document found showing what degree Shames earned, it is assumed she held a degree in English or literature. Shames held a variety of teaching jobs at multiple universities, including Harvard University, the University of New Mexico, the University of California at Irvine, and UCLA. She became a full-time faculty member at California State University, Fullerton in 1969. As an associate professor of English there, she taught American literature, American Indian literature, and was a faculty coordinator for immigrant and refugee students. Shames won several awards for her innovative teaching.

Map point of Harvard

Map point of University of New Mexico

Map point of UC Irvine

Map point of UCLA

After joining the faculty, Priscilla and her husband divorced in 1970. It was also around this time that she changed her last name to Oaks. Though it is unclear why she made the change, she went on to publish and teach under the name Priscilla Oaks.

Publishing

Oaks researched the literature of racialized minority groups. One of her first published pieces was from 1975 that included works of over 2,000 collected pieces in her published book titled, Minority Studies: A Selective Annotated Bibliography. These collected pieces included the poems, authors, writings, finding, and many other pieces of Native Americans, Spanish Americans, African Americans, and Asian Americans.

Cover of book Minority studies: A Selective Annotated Bibliography

The Conference

Image of page 6 of Marjorie Randal's National Women's Conference Collection with Priscilla Oaks name highlighted

Oaks was also involved in the 1977 National Women’s Conference in Houston. She represented Laguna Beach in California. Like other California delegates, Oaks supported the enactment of the Equal Rights Amendment. Given her research interests, she may have also advocated for a variety of rights pertaining to radicalized minorities at the conference.

After the Conference

Publishing More

Following the NWC, Oaks continued to publish articles focusing on the challenges facing diverse communities in the United States.

Contributing to MELUS

Some of these works include a series of publications for MELUS, a publishing company hoping to expand the study and teachings of Latinos, Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Americans, and Euro-Americans through their literary works, authors, and cultural context with yearly publications that include a variety of works. Oaks first contribution was an article titled, “The First Generation of Native American Novelists'' in the journal MELUS volume 5 issue 1. Oaks continued to publish many works in MELUS as she focused on writing about literature from a variety of ethnic groups.

Full title of MELUS

Cover of book Women’s Sexual Development: Explorations of Inner Space

Other Publications

Along with publishing in MELUS, Oaks would continue to publish separate works of hers that were either standalone or in the combination of other academics. An article of Oaks would be featured in a book of collected pieces by authors and editors on their views of ideas, problems, and questions regarding female sexual development in the US. The book, Women’s Sexual Development: Explorations of Inner Space, published officially in 1980. Oaks' contribution work was titled "Roll, Jenny Jenkins, Roll’ Little Girls and Maidens in American Folksongs- An Analysis of Sexual Attitudes”. Her article looked at the effect of folk songs throughout a woman's life.

Going Abroad

Throughout her career, Oaks also studied Chinese literature. As a part of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, she lectured on English literature at several Chinese universities between 1981 and 1982. These universities included Fudan University in Shanghai, Shandong Oceanographic College in Qingdao, and Beijing University in Beijing. Oaks earned praise from her colleagues for her contributions to the program. Earning the opportunity to teach abroad shows how much of Oaks' life was centered on expanding the knowledge of English and literature by teaching what she spent her life studying to help others.

Fudan University in Shanghai

Shandong Oceanographic College in Qingdao

Beijing University in Beijing

Final Moments

On September 14, 1985, Oaks died in a car accident in Laguna Beach. She was 61 years old. Cal State Fullerton held a ceremony to celebrate her achievements and life. Not only had Priscilla Oaks left a mark on her students, her memories live on through her family by her three daughters, son, and grandchildren.

Bibliography

“Family Tree Profiles Found for Priscilla Oaks,” FamilySearch.org, Accessed , February 04, 2022, https://www.familysearch.org/search/discovery/results?givenName=Priscilla%2B&surname=Oaks&birthPlace=Laguna%2BBeach.

“MELUS: The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States,” MELUS, accessed February 28, 2022, https://melus.org/.

“Miss Priscilla Cohen in the U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current: Ancestry®.” Ancestry.com. Accessed February 21, 2022. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/1543575:62116

Oaks, Priscilla. “Chapter 1: ‘Roll, Jenny Jenkins, Roll’ Little Girls and Maidens in American Folksongs- An Analysis of Sexual Attitudes,” in Women's Sexual Development: Explorations of Inner Space, 1st ed. (Springer US, 1980), pp. 1-18.

Oaks, Priscilla. “The First Generation of Native American Novelists.” MELUS 5, no. 1 (1978): 57–65. https://doi.org/10.2307/763414.

Oaks, Priscilla. Minority Studies: A Selective Annotated Bibliography. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1975.

Palermo, Dave. “Pickup Driver Arrested for Vehicular Manslaughter : Crash Kills Cal State Fullerton Professor.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, September 26, 1985. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-09-26-me-1610-story.html.

“Priscilla Oaks,” Fulbright Scholar Program, Accessed February 04, 2022, https://cies.org/grantee/priscilla-oaks.

Randal, Marjorie. “List of National Women's Conference Delegates with Biographical Information.” University of Houston Libraries Digital Collections. Accessed February 4, 2022. https://digitalcollections.lib.uh.edu/concern/texts/x346d4920.

“U.S., School Yearbooks, 1900-1999 for Priscilla Cohen: Ancestry®.” Ancestry.com. Accessed February 3, 2022. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com/discoveryui-content/view/1447201825:1265

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