Roots and Branches of Oral History

Doing oral history is a part of being human. It is also a formalized research practice with histories that vary across disciplines, geographies, and institutional contexts. 

In this class, students will be introduced to the many roots of oral history - as an Indigenous practice, in folklore and storytelling, in community organizing and popular education, and as an interdisciplinary research practice. We will explore the histories of oral history as a research practice in a range of national and regional contexts, within the disciplines of history and anthropology, and both within and beyond universities and libraries.

From these many roots, we can trace many branches. Students will learn about contemporary uses of oral history as a decolonial and feminist research method, a tool for organizing, as slow scholarship, as performance, and as a narrative praxis.

As a final project, each student will conduct research, building on assigned course readings, to identify their own relevant oral history roots and define their own approach to doing oral history.

This course is required for Oral History MA students, and open to non-OHMA graduate students space permitting and with instructor’s permission.