History 5401 Theory and Practice of Oral History
Thursday, 5:30pm - 8pm
Pafford 208
Instructor: Dr. Bailey
836-4561
Office Hours: MW 11am -2pm
Thursday 2:30-5:15pm
& by appointment
Official Office: TLC #3245
Office Hours Location: Pafford 207
(Public History Center)
Course Description and Learning Outcomes
Although in general terms, oral history could be said to have developed out of many forms of ancient oral traditions and customs, today, most oral historians highlight three occurrences as contributing factors in the emergence of the American oral history discipline: the gathering of recollections about the life of Abraham Lincoln, the WPA slave narratives, and the establishment, in the late 1940s, of the Columbia University Oral History Project by Allan Nevins. History 5401 is designed to:
1) expose students to the current “historiography of oral history.”
2) encourage students to explore the utility of oral history as a research methodology.
3) allow students to examine the fundamental challenges of historical documentation by assessing the issues of validity, bias, and perspective in their effect on oral history interviews.
4) advance the students’s analytical writing skills by requiring them to conduct interviews and integrate them into essays which also draw upon other primary and secondary sources.
Required Texts:
Frisch, Michael. A Shared Authority: Essays on the Craft and Meaning of Oral and Public History (1990).
Perks, Robert and Alistair Thomson, eds. The Oral History Reader (2002).
Portelli, Alessandro. The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History (1991)
Sommer, Barbara W. and Mary Kay Quinlan. The Oral History Manual (2002).
Assignments and Their Percentage Value of the Final Grade:
5%
Class Participation: It is expected that each student will attend class regularly and contribute meaningful and thoughtful responses to the assigned reading. Each student will be allowed one “pass”– an excuse for not having completed the weekly reading– this is to encourage the student in such a situation to come to class, even though unprepared. More than one absence will result in additional work being assigned.
5%
Book Review: Review Portelli, Death of Luigi Trastulli. Expectations for this assignment will be finalized after discussion between students and instructor.
35%
Class Ethnography Project (value of individual components see below)
1)5%
Initial Assessment of Interview: Each student will write a 1-2 page paper analyzing the overall quality and content of the interview they will index, transcribe, and analyze for the class project.
2) 5%
Final Assessment of the Interview: As part of the exit exercise for the project each student will re-assess their interview, drawing upon the advance of their oral history evaluation skills. The students are encouraged to respond to issues or questions raised in their initial papers. (1-2 page paper)
3) 5%
Index: Each student will index, according to OHA standards, an interview from the Class Project collection
4) 10%
Transcription: Each student will transcribe, according to OHA standards, an interview from the Class Project collection.
5) 10%
Ethnographic Analysis Essay: Each student will contribute a 3-5 page essay to a Class Project report that will illuminate the ethnographic value and utility of the interview they studied.
15%
“Follow-Up” Oral History Interview: Each student will conduct a follow-up interview for an interview currently archived at the Center for Public History. In addition to the interview, the student will complete a partial transcription and write a 3-5 page narrative essay about what value the follow up
40%
Individual Interview Project: Each student will conduct an interview on a topic of their own choosing. In addition to the interview, the student will complete a transcription of the interview and write a fifteen- twenty-five page analytical essay utilizing their interview, as well as other primary and secondary sources. (This will replace the final examination requirement)
Course Calendar
Week 1:
January 6
Class Introduction: What is Oral History; Meeting with Class Project Client representative Carol Ash, Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site
PART I
The Basics of Oral History Methodology
Week 2:
January 13
Background Research and Question Preparation
Readings: Sommer & Quinlan, Chapter 7: “Interview Preparation”
Frisch, Chapter 1: “Oral History and Hard Times: A Review Essay
Chapter 2: “The Memory of History”
Perks & Thomson: #2 Thompson, “The Voice of the Past”
#4 Grele, “Movement without Aim”
# 6 Portelli, “What Makes Oral History Different?”
Week 3:
January 23
Interview Etiquette, Ethics, and the Law
Readings: Sommer & Quinlan, Chapter 3: “Legal and Ethical Considerations”; “The Interview Setting”; Appendix 7: “Oral History Evaluation Guidelines
Perks & Thomson: #9 Blee, On Oral History Interviewing”
#28 Morrissey, “Evidence, Empathy, & Ethics”
Assignment: Class Project Initial Assessment of Interview Essay
Week 4:
January 30
Interview Types and Techniques
Readings: Sommer & Quinlan, Chapter 9: “The Interview”
Perks & Thomson: #10 Slim & Thompson, “Ways of Listening”
#11 Walmsley, “Life History Interviews”
#12 Kikumura, “Family Life Histories”
#14 Anderson & Jack, “Learning to Listen”
#15 White, “Marking Absences”
Assignment: Class Project Interview Index
Week 5:
February 6
Securing Your Document: Labeling, Copying, Indexing, Transcribing & Archiving
Readings: Sommer & Quinlan, Chapter 10: “Processing and Care”
Frisch, Chapter 5 “Preparing Transcripts for Documentary Publication”
Perks & Thomson: #30 Wallot and Fortier, “Archival Science and Sources”
#32 Samuel, “Perils of the Transcript”
#33 Mace, Reminiscence as Literacy”
PART II
The Scholar’s Resource: Oral History as Historical Document/Data Source
Week 6:
February 13
Evaluating the Interview
Readings: Perks & Thomson: #23 Lummis, “Structure and Validity in Oral Evidence”
& (Others To Be Assigned possibly)
Assignment: Class Project Transcription Due
Week 7:
February 20
Roundtable Discussion: West Georgia Scholars Share Their Insights and Opinions OR Class Discussion of Alessandro Portelli
Readings: Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli
Assignment: Ethnographic Essay Rough Draft Due
Week 8:
February 27
The Politics of Memory
Readings: Frisch, Chapter 6: “Presenting and Receiving Oral History Across Cultural Space”
Frisch, Chapter 7: “Oral History, Documentary, and the Mystification of Power”
Perks & Thomson: #7 Popular Memory Group, “Popular Memory, Theory, Politics and Method”
Assignment: Follow-Up Oral History Interview Packet Due
Week 9:
March 6
Field Trip to Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site
Week 10:
March 13
Using Oral Histories in Historical Writing
Readings: Perks & Thomson: #24 Schrager, “What is Social in Oral History?”
#26 Friedlander, “Theory, Method, & Oral History”
#27 Borland, “That’s Not What I Said”
Assignment: Brief Description of and Partial Bibliography for Individual Interview Project
PART III
Oral History as a Community and Public Resource
Week 11:
March 27
Project Planning, Financial Support, and Budget Development
Readings: Sommer & Quinlan, Chapter 2: “Project Overview and Planning,” Chapter 4: “Getting Started,” Chapter 6: “Creating a Budget and Finding Financial Support”
Frisch, Chapter 8: “Quality in History Programs”
Chapter 9: “Town into City”
Assignment: Portelli Book Review due
Week 12:
April 3
In Museums and Historic Interpretation
Readings: Frisch, Chapter 11: “Audience as Resource and Challenge”
Chapter 12: “Urban Public History in Celebratory Contexts
Chapter 13: “The Presentation of Urban History”
Perks & Thomson: #38 Green, “The Exhibition That Speaks for Itself”
Week 13:
April 10
In Media: Documentaries, Radio, Internet, CD-rom
Readings: Sommer & Quinlan, Chapter
Frisch, Chapter 10: “Get the Picture”
Perks & Thomson: #31 Sipe, “The Future of Oral History and Moving Images”
#35 Read, “Presenting Voices in Different Media”
#36 Flick & Goodall, “Angledool Stories: aboriginal history in hypermedia”
Week 14:
April 17
Readings: Perks & Thomson: #39 Nethercott & Leighton, “Out of the Archives and Onto the Stage”
Assignment: All Class Project Materials Due
Week 15:
April 24
Readings: Frisch, “American History and the Structures of Collective Memory”
Perks & Thomson: #37 Ross, “Children Becoming Historians”
Assignment: Either a presentation and discussion of Individual Interview Project or a discussion of the Class Project final results
Final Exam
Thursday, May 1: 5:30 -7:30 pm
Either a presentation and discussion of Individual Interview Project or a discussion of the Class Project final results
Brief Description of Class Project Focus
The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site was created in 1980 "to protect and interpret
for the benefit, inspiration, and education of this and future generations the places where Martin
Luther King, Junior was born, where he livid, worked, and worshiped, and where he is buried."
Young Martin King lived in the "Sweet Auburn" area of Atlanta. During segregation, this
prosperous black community provided him with positive role models -- black men and women
who were successful educators, small business owners, and community leaders.
Three house from Dr. King's Birth Home is Fire Station No. 6. This station was an important
part of the Auburn community. In 1996, interviews were done with seven members of the Fire
Department who served in Station 6 or who were part of the first contingent of black fire fighters to
integrate the department. These interviews are on video tape . Excerpts of the interviews are part
of the exhibit that is located in Station 6 which is being developed as a fire museum. The tapes
have not been transcribed or indexed. Having transcripts of these tapes will be an important step as
the site continues to develop plans for the museum.