Oral History Interview: Hazel Carter (787)

Abstract

In her 2006 interviews with Robert Lange, Hazel Carter discusses her academic career in the study of African languages. She recalls her childhood and education, growing up in Britain during the Great Depression and later World War II. She discusses her undergraduate education at Oxford University, where she attended lectures by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Carter recalls learning African languages such as Shona and Tonga and her time living in West Africa, where she met her first husband. She first taught in London for many years before being hired at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she remained for the rest of her career, temporarily serving as Chair of the African Literature of Languages Department before her retirement in 1995. After retiring, she began taking knitting and crocheting as a serious hobby, publishing a book of patterns and teaching classes around Wisconsin. This interview was conducted for inclusion into the African Studies Project of the UW-Madison Archives & Records Management oral history collection, with final processing done by Women Inspire.