History 596: Oral History
Fall 2013, Tuesdays 10:00-12:30, Buchanan Tower 1206
P. Raibmon
Course Description
In this course, we will survey a selection of critical issues in the development of oral history as a
research methodology. We will pay particular attention to the practice of oral history in relation
to questions of trauma, advocacy, testimony, memory, collaboration and shared authority, life
history, ethics, and the courts. Many of these questions will be explored in relation to
Indigenous peoples, but many other contexts for oral history—from Ireland to Appalachia to
Indonesia—will also be considered. We will also consider the practices of interviewing and
transcribing.
Required Texts
The following books are available at the UBC bookstore. Books with a URL listed next to them
are also available on-line through the UBC library.
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Cruikshank, Julie, Angela Sidney, Kitty Smith, and Annie Ned. Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories
of Three Yukon Native Elders. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.
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Miller, Bruce. Oral History on Trial. Vancouver: UBC Press,
2011. (http://resolve.library.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/catsearch?bid=5878815)
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Perks, Robert and Alistair Thomson. The Oral History Reader, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge,
2006.
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Portelli, Alessandro. They Say in Harlan County: An Oral History. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2011. (http://resolve.library.ubc.ca/cgi-bin/catsearch?bid=6182743)
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Participation (25%)
Weekly Reading Responses (25%); due every week in class
Discussion facilitation (5%); sign up on 10 September
TCPS 2 Tutorial: Course on Research Ethics and Written analysis (10%); due 15 October
Historiographical Essay (35%)
o Essay topic due 15 October
o Initial annotated bibliography of sources due 12 November (5%)
o Final essay due 10 December (30%)
Participation (25%)
Everyone’s active, thoughtful, and respectful participation is an essential for the success of our
joint learning endeavour this semester. Successful participation includes:
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attending class: explained absences (due to religious holiday, documented illness or funeral) will
not affect your participation grade, but more than one unexplained absence will result in a
“zero” for your participation grade for each additional class that you miss;
your full attention: please please turn off your cel phone, and refrain from texting, using
facebook, twitter, or the internet. Use laptops only for taking notes related to class;
carefully reading and reflecting upon the assigned readings before class;
framing your comments and questions in a skilful manner that opens up further discussion and
invites commentary;
listening attentively and responding to the comments of other students;
choosing the appropriate moment to make your intervention in class discussion;
working collaboratively to ensure a positive space for discussion and learning in which
everyone’s views are respected
posting 2-3 discussion questions by 7pm every Monday on the front page of the course blog to
assist the discussion facilitator with his or her task. Useful discussion questions should take us
deeper into the reading in some fashion, and should not have “yes” or “no” answers.
Explained absences (due to religious holiday, documented illness or funeral) will not affect your
participation grade. But more than one unexplained absence will result in a “zero” for your
participation grade for each additional class that you miss. This will have a significant impact on
your overall participation grade.
If you are concerned about your ability to participate fully in History 596, please come and see
me. I am happy to work with you to help find a solution.
Here are some resources from the Bowdoin College Writing Guide
(http://www.bowdoin.edu/writing-guides/) that I find provide useful tips on how to read
strategically and how to pose useful discussion questions.
Weekly Reading Responses (25%)
Weekly reading responses of 250-400 words are due every week in class. These should be
double-spaced, and typed in a 12-point font, with 1-inch margins.
One of the purposes for writing these responses is to help prepare you for class discussion. For
this reason, responses are due in person. Late responses will only be accepted in exceptional
circumstances such as illness, emergency, or with prior arrangement. Please bring a hard copy
of your reading response to class. I will not accept reading responses by e-mail except with prior
arrangement.
Please do not attempt to summarize the week’s readings in your reading responses Instead, you
should select a key theme, concept, issue, or controversy and explore it across the various
readings assigned for the week. That is, these short-form writing assignments ask you to think
analytically and to practice seeing “the forest for the trees.” Your comments for the week will
necessarily draw on the readings in a selective fashion. Your own responses to the readings
should be front and centre and you should draw upon the assigned readings as examples (i.e.
evidence) to illustrate your thoughts. In this respect, the reading responses are also a form of
weekly preparation for writing your historiographical essay which will ask you to take this same
form of writing and scale it up significantly.
Discussion facilitation (5%)
On 10 September each of you will sign up to facilitate discussion once during the
semester. There is no formal presentation component of this assignment. Instead, this task
involves reviewing the discussion questions posed by your classmates ahead of time, adding
questions of your own, and compiling and shaping the discussion accordingly. This task requires
careful listening skills in order to draw connections and distinctions among the input from your
classmates during discussion.
TCPS 2 Tutorial: Course on Research Ethics
and Written analysis (10%)
The ethics of conducting oral history research is a major topic of interest for oral historians. In
Canada, the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS): Ethical Conduct for Research Involving
Humans is a major document for guiding research involving human subjects in universities. For
this assignment, you must complete the on-line TCPS tutorial. (This tutorial is a requirement for
obtaining approval to conduct oral history work at UBC.)
The tutorial can be done on-line at: http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/eng/education/tutorialdidacticiel/
Once you have completed the tutorial, please write a 500-750 word written analysis of the
tutorial and your experience with it. In particular, please consider the following sorts of
questions
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Do you the guidelines outlined in the TCPS ensure ethical process and outcome in oral history
work?;
What assumptions about ethical research frame the TCPS?;
What is at stake in formal ethics review processes?;
Whose interests does the TCPS best protect and serve? Are researchers’ and participants’
interests equally and adequately served?;
What silences can you detect in the TCPS tutorial? What topics are not addressed? Where are
there holes?
Your written analysis should be double-spaced, in a 12-point font, and have one-inch margins. It
should also include a title page with your name on it. This should be the only page on which
your name appears so that I am able to mark these assignments “blind.”
Historiographical Essay (35%)
For your final paper, select a major topic of interest within the field of oral history and write a
15-18 page historiographical essay. At least two approaches to this assignment are possible.
Taking a topical approach, you could research the primary books and articles that have employed
an oral history methodology in your field. For example, if your own field of interest is gay and
lesbian history, you could start with George Chauncey’s Gay New York, and Elizabeth
Lapovsky Kennedy’s and Madeline Davis’ Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold, and then go on to
read other important works in the field produced using oral history.
Alternatively, you could take a conceptual rather than topical approach to this assignment, and
select a key issue such as memory, trauma, technology, or transcription (among many others),
and read deeply into the relevant literature. The footnotes to the chapters in The Oral History
Reader will be invaluable to help you get started with finding sources. The issue you select does
not need to be one that we have covered in class.
Note, a historiographical essay is NOT a review essay that summarizes a large amount of
reading. Instead, (like all essays you write) it must have an original argument up front. You
should then deploy the books and articles you have read in turn, as evidence for the argument
you are putting forward. This requires you to master the literature that you have read for the
assignment and to demonstrate your confidence in your own interpretive abilities. There is no
set number of books or articles that you must read for this assignment. You should read widely
enough in your chosen area of interest in order to gain a solid and broad understanding of topic
or concept you have selected. Depending on the nature of the argument that you develop, you
may want to establish a sense of change over time in relation to your topic/concept, or you may
choose instead to focus on the current state of the field.
To help you get started early on this essay, I have broken the assignment into stages:
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Essay topic due 15 October
Annotated bibliography of sources due 12 November (5%)
Final essay due 12:00 noon on 5 December (30%)