HIST 3502 Oral History For Our Times

This course explores the practices and ethics of oral history, a field of study and profession focused on collecting, preserving, and curating the memories of participants in past events. It addresses oral history as historical evidence and research methodology appropriate to many academic and vocational disciplines such as history, cultural anthropology, sociology, subaltern and gender studies, epidemiology, psychology, nursing, journalism, criminal justice, and human rights. Themes include crucial debates and objectives in oral history; interviewing and designing an oral history project; insider/outsider status and other methodological challenges; oral history as advocacy and empowerment; interpreting oral source material; oral history and memory; life histories; oral history and community history; oral narratives and performance. Students will practice oral history techniques by conducting, recording, and evaluating their own interview through fieldwork, and then share their work in progress so that it may contribute to an oral history archive of New Jersey in modern times.
Credits: 3.0