Oral History Reflection - 20% of discover grade
Assignment: Write a 5 -page reflection of your oral history project (interview and digital
story) referencing the ideas in at least 5 of the 11 readings. This essay is asking you to reflect
on your practice: creating a consent form, designing interview questions, transcribing or
summarizing the interview, creating a script with historical context and a theme, collecting
images, and creating a digital story in imovie. The reflection will be informed by the ideas
and perspectives of our readings.
Here are some questions to consider as you write your reflection. You will not answer all of
these questions and your reflection will not be a list of answers (the essay will need an
overall theme and will be structured to support this theme).
Portelli - 25
 Did your project help you understand the past in ways that traditional history
(about leaders etc) doesn't? What did you come to understand about the past?
 Portelli says that the voice of the interviewee communicates meanings not
captured in a transcript or summary? Is this true in your experience?
 Does oral history tell us more about "meaning" then "events" ("Oral sources tell us
not just what people did, but what they wanted to do, what they believed they were
doing, and what they now think: they did" (portelli 36).)
 Did you fmd that analyzing the inaccuracies in your interviewees stories helped you
understand what the past was like ("'wrong' statements may be psychologically 'true'
and ... this truth may be equally as important as factually reliable accounts" (37).)
 Should historians embrace their role in history making or should they endeavor to
stay as much as possible behind the scenes presenting facts.
Allison - 211
 Did you notice your interviewee using many of the narrative devices Allsion argues
that we apply to memories once enough time has passed - cohesive story with
colorful description, drama, justification for actions, significance and a larger
context?
What belief systems lay behind the stories your interviewee told you?
Rosenman - 230
 Did any of your interviewee's story sound incredible? Do you believe them or it is
possible there may be some misremembering?
Borland - 310
 When you found the theme for your digital story, did you talk: to your interviewee
about this theme? If they didn't agree that that is the theme of the story, did you
change the theme? Keep the theme? Include their disagreement in the script?
 Do you think: it ethical for you to interpret someone else's story (your
interpretation is the digital story theme).
 Did you eschew the interpretation that your interview gave the story in favor of a
theme you liked better?
Whose story is it? The interviewee who lived it or you who tell it?
Blee - 322

Do you see your digital story as empowering your interviewee by adding his/her
perspective to the historical record?
 Did you empathize with your interviewee's storiesllife or were you able to keep
your emotional distance?
 Did s/he tell you anything that made you realize how different and distant are your
life experiences (especially something distasteful). How did this difference and
distance impact your ability to empathize with him/her?
Studs - 123
 Compare your interview to the suggestions Studs gives us? Where did you most
closely follow his recommendations? Where did you deviate?
 Now that you've conducted a formal interview, what did you think about this
suggestions? What did he get right? What seems beside the point? Where did he miss
the mark?
Finnegan - 177
 Did you fact check your interviewee's story?
 What larger narratives does this story pull form (i.e. golden age of family, rags to
riches narrative)?
 Did your script retain or resist this larger story?
Klempner - 198
 Did your interview touch on any tough memories? If so, did your interviewee do
what Klempner says interviewees do in these situations - laugh, use humor or
flippancy? Did you find yourself reacting how Klempner often says interviewers
react - change the subject, get very emotional, try to make things better with a
sugary interpretation (i.e. that sure took a lot of pluck).
Burton - 166
 How did your being an insider (family culture and language) effect the interview?
 What would have been different if you were an outsider?
 How did sharing a family language affect the interview
Overall Questions: