Oral History
Several of our students presented at the iPod showcase for the Apple Digital Campus Leadership Institute. I am very proud of our projects, and you should be too. For this week, we have Dr. Lee Ann Caldwell with us to discuss oral hisory. Most of you know Dr. Caldwell and I know we will enjoy this session. It gets even better, as Dr. Jesse Hingson has arranged some projects for us to complete in oral history. You will be interviewing members of the Cuban community here. Dr. Hingson has graciously arranged all of this and will be lending his help to you while we work through the project. Once again, we will be pod casting the interviews along with your analysis of the material. If you have not listened to the genealogy projects of your peers, you will want to do that, as they were very interesting. We have lots to discuss about our materials over the last couple of weeks, so I am looking forward to our next class and to discussing these materials on the blog.
posted by Dr. Deborah Vess @ 10:27 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I am not sure what Joey means when he claims oral history "surpasses" other historical methods. I believe many professional historians would dispute that claim. Too, can Joey perhaps explain more what he means when claiming oral histories allow for interactions wtih the past that the written record does not? After all, many oral histories are transcribed -- this is standard methodology. If he means merely that oral histories preserve what may not be preserved elsewhere in writing, that is certainly true of many African cultures prior to modern times.
I want to add one more thing to consider -- Joey wrote that "Truly, the concept of oral history surpasses any other historical methodology since it was narration and the tradition of older generations relaying history to younger generations through stories that came before the concept of writing and recording the past." Does this claim that when one tells narratives and stories told from generation to generation one relays "history" raise any issues for the rest of you, especially in the context of assigned readings? One thing I hope all learn from Dr. Hingson's project is that it is one thing to take an interview, but another to make "history" out of it. Would anyone like to comment on this point -- to agree or to disagree?
I think that as far as historical method goes, oral history makes up a necessary part of the whole project of doing history. While it would not be prudent to validate a hypothesis with only oral history accounts, it would also be rash to disregard them altogether. A good historical method is one that uses as much empirical data as possible. It is important to leave our own inferences at the door, present the material as unbiasedly as possible, and let the data speak for itself.
As for the oral history projects, I feel that our task is not one of historical fact, in the sense that there isn't necessarily a right or wrong answer to what we are looking for. If I understand the assignment, we are attempting to see Milledgeville, and the U.S. as a whole, from the perspective of a cuban immigrant, or those close to them. Because of the nature of this project, I feel that it is important for us to ask questions that are multifaceted. For example, a good question might be "Who were your childhood heros?" Their answers will provide us with what they aspired to; possibly what their parents were instilling in them; what or who was influencing them; hence indirectly revealing to us what their life was like in Milledgeville in the 60's. "What were your aspirations?" and other questions like this may help us gain valuable information.
Note Dr. Hingson's directions to the Milledgeville Library. We will see everyone over there at 5:30 and will later return to the seminar room in A&S for further discussion. Dr. Hingson thinks the interviews will take around one hour. We need to discuss the rough drafts of your research papers, our biography projects, and the next stages in the oral history project. Busy night!
Kathleen, thanks for your helpful reflections. Colin, I always appreciate your postings, but you remind me of von Ranke when you say the historian should "let the data speak for itself." What would Carr say about that?
Lindsay, oral interviews, like those we will collect tonight, are primary sources.
One of the things about technology that is the most valuable is the extent to which it allows many people to have access to materials that otherwise they would not have. It is wonderful to hear that you shared this material with your students. We can be proud to have done something that has enabled others beyond our class to learn.
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