"In Their Own Words: Oral History and Irish New York”
FRSEM-UA 540
Linda Dowling Almeida
lindaalmeida@hotmail.com
212/998-3950
Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
Glucksman Ireland House 101
Office Hours: Tuesday 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. and by appointment
Fall 2014
Texts:
Angela’s Ashes, Frank McCourt
Black Powder, White Lace: The Du Pont Irish and Cultural Identity in Nineteenth-Century America, by
Margaret M. Mulrooney
Call of the Lark, Maura Mulligan
On the Waterfront, James Fisher
Remembering Ahanagran: Storytelling in a Family’s Past, Richard White
The Voice of the Past: Oral History (3rd edition), Paul Thompson
Joe Long Interviews of West Village Irish
Purpose:
This interdisciplinary course will focus on oral history as a resource in understanding the 20th century
history of the Irish in America, particularly in New York. Students will explore the discipline as it has
progressed over the last twenty years, developing their own research, writing and interviewing skills
along the way with access to the 300+ interviews in Glucksman's Ireland House's Oral History holdings in
the Archives of Irish America. The course will demonstrate how oral history gives life to ethnic
communities like those of the Irish longshoreman who worked Chelsea Piers in the West Village before it
was an entertainment destination, personalizes dramatic events like 9/11, or provides insight as to why
John Patrick Shanley wrote Doubt. In addition to traditional texts, we will listen to and conduct
interviews, work with digital maps created from oral history content, walk the streets of the
communities we study and screen documentaries exploring the lives of Irish Americans. This course will
introduce students not only to oral history but to the history of the Irish in America.
Course Requirements:
We meet once a week, attendance is mandatory and will be considered in the determination of final
grades, along with class participation, the readings, and smaller writing assignments that stem from the
class readings and discussion.
Work is assigned on a weekly basis and is outlined in the syllabus distributed at the start of the
semester. The syllabus is also available on-line throughout the semester as are most readings, special
assignments, and announcements for the class.
The two featured assignments for the semester, in addition to regular reading and writing assignments,
are an independent interview with a subject of the student’s choice and a project focussing on some
aspect of oral history and/or using oral history sources including interviews deposited in the Archive of
Irish America at NYU.
All books are available at the bookstore, but feel free to use library loans or purchase the texts
elsewhere. All other articles/readings will be found on line in NYU Classes.
Grade Distribution:
Essay #1 – 15% September 30
Essay #2– 15% October 21
Essay #3 –15% November 11
Oral Presentation – 10% November 18
Final Project –35% December 9
Attendance and Participation – 10%
September 2
Introduction
Class:
What is objective of the course.
Discuss semester projects, expectations.
Review interviews in the Archive: look at elements of the project.
Oral History and Community History
Read for September 10:
“Irish America, 1900-1940”, Kevin Kenny, The American Irish: A History
“Irish America, 1940-2000”, Linda Dowling Almeida, Making the Irish American (MIA)
“Looking for Jimmy”, Peter Quinn, MIA
“The Future of Irish America”, Peter Quinn, MIA
“The History of Oral History”, Rebecca Sharpless, Handbook of Oral History, ed. Tomas L. Charlton, Lois
E. Myers, and Rebecca Sharpless
Assignment for September 10:
Read oral interview of Ed McGowan by Mick Maloney and select excerpts that best define the interview;
write out each quote and why your chose it.
Listen to the OH podcast.
Week 2
September 9
What is oral history?
Class:
The oral tradition in history
Who are the Irish in America?
Review background of Irish in United States 1600-present
Discuss excerpt selections from Week 1 assignment
Read for September 16:
“The Interview,” The Voice of the Past: Oral History, Paul Thompson, pp. 222-245
“A Life Story Interview Guide”, Thompson, pp. 309-323
Week 3
September 16
The Interview: Subject and Background
Class:
Review etiquette of interviews, communication with candidates, etc.
Screen Human Subjects protocol from NYU Office of Special Projects.
http://www.nyu.edu/ucaihs/tutorial/1/
Discuss history/historiography of oral history as a practice
Discuss interviewing techniques, how to ask questions, determine focus/structure of interview
Preview Joe Long Interviews
Practice interviews, using Story Corps questionaire
Listen to interviews, critique style, discuss how to conduct an interview/work with the interview
candidate to solicit responses
Read for September 23: Thompson, “Memory and the Self”, pp. 173-189
Remembering Ahanagran, Richard White (See assigments for specific chapter requirements)
“How Our Brains Make Memories,” Smitnsonian Magazine, Greg Miller, May 2010:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/How-Our-Brains-MakeMemories.html#.UjIAOfAUBkk.email
John Kotre, White Gloves: How We Create Ourselves Through Memory, “Prologue” and “The
Whereabouts of Memory,” pp. 1-26.
Start to read Joe Long Interviews
Assignment:
Interview Exercise due September 30. See Blackboard for details
Prepare two prompts for discussion based on the readings for September 23.
Week 4
September 23
Memory: The Science and the Flaws
Class:
Discussion on reading topics including White’s Ahanagran and Kotre led by student prompts
Screen: Sleuthing Mary Shanley
Reading Assignment for Sept. 30:
“The Death of Luigi Trastulli”, Alessandro Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form
and Meaning in Oral History
“”What Makes Oral History Different”, Alessandro Portelli, The Death of Luigi Trastulli
James S. Donnelly, Jr., “The Construction of the Memory of the Famine in Ireland and the Irish Diaspora,
1850-1900”, Eire-Ireland, 31:1&2, Spring/Summer, 1996, 26-61
“Evidence,” Thompson, pp. 118-172.
Kotre, pp. 27-57, “Is Everything in There?” White Gloves
Week 5
September 30
Memory/Oral History as a Resource/propaganda tool
Class:
Screen Bloody Sunday
Interview Exercise due
Student led discussions on Portelli, Donnelly and Kotre.
Reading Assignment for 10/7:
Thompson, 265-290
Black Powder, White Lace, Margaret Mulroney : Delaware Irish – how did she create this history
Continue reading Long interviews
Week 6
October 7:
Class:
Community history
Review Joe Long project and community digital map
Assignment:
Essay #2: Consider how Mulroney and Long projects: how did each recreate their community?
Due: October 21
Read for 10/22:
Read Long interview thesis and interview transcriptions for 10/21 essay
See website for details in Joe Long file.
Consider topics for final project. Submit topic idea to Professor Almeida by 10/17 for approval and
before 10/21 trip to library.
Week 7
October 14
HOLIDAY
Week 8
October 21
Research Session in Library
Class:
Meet at Bobst Library
Mulroney/Long essay due.
Assignment for October 28:
Read McCourt’s Angela Ashes or other memoir for 10/28. Options to be discussed in class.
Week 9
October 28
Memoirs and oral history
Class:
Discuss differences between memoirs and oral history.
Preview BC tapes case
Assignment:
Essay #3, details on line
Due: November 18
Read for 11/5:
“Publishing Oral History: Oral Exchange and Print Culture,” Richard Candida Smith
Ronald Grede, “Oral History as Evidence”
Carl Ryant, “Oral History and Business History”, The Journal of American History, Vol. 75, No. 2, Sept.
1988, pp. 560-566 (reader)
Jo Blatti, “Public History and Oral History”, The Journal of American History, Vol. 77, No. 2, Sept. 1990,
615-625
“Making Sense of ‘Mistakes’ in Oral Sources”, Eugene Hynes
Gary Owens, “The Carrickshock Incident, 1831: Social Memory and an Irish cause celebre”, Cultural and
Social History 2004: 1, pp. 36-64
BC Tapes article in History Ireland
Week 10
November 4
Facts vs. Truth: Significance of Oral History
Stewardship/Preservation/Archiving
BC/IRA tapes case
Class:
Discuss significance of oral histories: value as evidence, resource
Discuss Boston College case and role of university in housing the tapes
Review Archives of Irish America
How are oral histories collected, archived. Review existing examples, including Archives of Irish America,
Ellis Island, Aisling Center, Mick Moloney, Myriam Nyhan
Read On the Waterfront by James Fisher for November 11.
Assignment for November 18:
Students will be assigned a site so there is no overlap
Evaluate a website that uses oral history and be prepared to make a short presentation on it to class.
Submit an outline including:
full title of the site/project
full web address of the site/project
date you accessed the site
broad subject
specific content
visual design
audio design
Try to think why this particular website and its presentation of an oral history interview/s is (or is not)
effective for researchers. You can refer to the Oral History Evaluation Guidelines published by the Oral
History Association (2000) online at http://omega.dickinson.edu/organizations/oha/pub_eg.html
These are some sample websites but you should feel free to explore the web and find others:
Breaking the Silence: Staying at Home in an Emigrant Society
http://migration.ucc.ie/oralarchive/testing/breaking/index.html
Moving Here, Migration Histories
http://www.movinghere.org.uk/galleries/histories/irish/irish.htm
Notable New Yorkers
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/digital/collections/nny/
Ground One: Voices from Post-9/11 Chinatown
http://www.911digitalarchive.org/chinatown/
University of Alaska Fairbanks Oral History Program (Project Jukebox)
http://uaf-db.uaf.edu/jukebox/PJWeb/pjprojects.htm
BBC History: Wars and Conflict
World War II: Voices of D-Day
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/dday_audio.shtml
Library of Congress, Veterans History Project
http://www.loc.gov/vets/
The Rutgers Oral History Archive, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, Cold War
http://oralhistory.rutgers.edu/
Washington State University Civil Rights Oral History Interviews
http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/xcivilrights.html
Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley
Suffragists Oral History Project
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/ROHO/projects/suffragist/
Baylor University Institute of Oral History
http://www.baylor.edu/oral_history/
Society for American Baseball Research
http://www.sabr.org
Story Corps
www.storycorps.net
Story Map, Dublin
www.storymap.ie
Black Women at Virginia Tech Oral History Project home page includes photographs and oral history
transcripts of the first black women students to attend Virginia Tech. The URL is:
http://spec.lib.vt.edu/blackwom/
WPA Life Histories--Home Page includes a searchable database by keywords and region for life histories
written by the staffers of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writer's Project of the U.S. Works Progress
Administration (WPA) during the period from 1936-1940.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/wpaintro/wpahome.html
The Vietnam Archive Oral History Project at Texas Tech University conducts interviews with people who
participated in the events surrounding the American Wars in Southeast Asia. Their interviews include
American, Allied, and South Vietnamese military and civilian personnel, North Vietnamese and Viet Cong
military and civilian personnel, civilians on the home fronts, deserters, and protesters. Transcripts and
streaming audio of interviews are available from online links at:
http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/oralhistory/
What did you do in the war, Grandma? An Oral History of Rhode Island Women during World War II
written by students in the Honors English Program at South Kingstown High School.
URL: http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/WWII_Women/tocCS.html
Week 11
November 11
Neighborhood tour of West Village: A day in the life of a waterfront family.
November 18
Oral presentation critique.
Class:
Student presentations of website critiques (November 8 assignment)
Week 12
November 25
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
Week 13
December 3
Tenement Museum Visit
Week 15
December 10
Final Projects
Class:
Present final projects