2024 Oral History Association Annual Meeting

Whether you are teaching a course that specifically addresses oral history methodology or one that incorporates oral history to deepen learning about disciplinary content, students need to learn the basics of oral history and skills in interviewing. This hands-on session will explore approaches to onboarding and training students in oral history as part of a college course.

ABSTRACT: Incorporating oral history into university coursework is a promising approach to increase both participation in and appreciation of the field. Oral history can be taught in courses as the primary subject of the class or incorporated into a course on any number of subjects as a pedagogy that deepens students' understanding of the course content. There are challenges however with embedding oral history into an existing course. This work directly relates to the OHA 2024 Annual Meeting theme of past, present, and future as introducing today’s students to the work of documenting others’ past experiences and facilitating their skill development in oral history will help to inform not only future generations, but the continuation of the field of oral history. In this session, three presenters who work in different disciplines and areas of a university will share their approaches to training and onboarding students in oral history projects that are embedded in a course. They discuss strategies around lining up partnerships and logistics for successful interviews, mitigating potential trauma, teaching students initial foundational information about the field, preparing and conducting interviews–sometimes in another language, creating archivable materials, and using these primary sources to think critically. Following an initial introduction and sharing of context and project specifics, this hands-on workshop will lead attendees through the steps involved in embedding oral history into an academic course. Suitable for teachers in secondary and university settings, as well as others who work to train oral historians in community settings, practical and helpful strategies will be shared as well as discussions about contemporary tools and offerings that can increase the efficacy and accuracy of the work.