What Are They Talking About? #Oral History in the 21st Century
FRSEM-UA 4622
Linda Dowling Almeida
lindaalmeida@hotmail.com
212/998-3950
Tuesday, 9:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.
Glucksman Ireland House
Office Hours: Tuesday 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. and by appointment
Fall 2013
Texts:
Remembering Ahanagran: Storytelling in a Family’s Past, Richard White
The Voice of the Past: Oral History (3rd edition), Paul Thompson
The New Irish, Ray O’Hanlon
Call of the Lark, Maura Mulligan (suggested)
Purpose:
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the techniques, practice, and place of the oral
history interview including: the background research on a subject; drafting interview questions; how to
conduct the interview; the ethics and etiquette of oral history; its significance to the historical literature;
and composing and editing the research/study documents from an interview such as a scope and
content report, finding log and story board. We will use interviews from the Oral History project found
in the Archive of Irish America as resources and investigate opportunities to apply digital mapping
techniques to the body of interviews assembled in the Archive. As a complement to this work students
will be introduced to a historical and cultural overview of the Irish American experience in the 20th
century to frame the interview contents in context.
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 blackboard 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 digital mapping project
drawing on interviews previously recorded and deposited in the Archives of Irish America.
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:
Memory Exercise – 15% October 1
Interview Essay – 20% October 22
Memoir Essay – 15% November 5
Oral Critique – 15% November 28
Mapping Project –20% TBA
Attendance and Participation – 15%
September 3
Introduction
Class:
What is objective of the course.
Discuss semester projects, expectations.
Review interviews in the Archive: look at elements of the project.
Read:
“Irish America, 1900-1940”, Kevin Kenny, The American Irish: A History
“Irish America, 1940-2000”, Linda Dowling Almeida, Making the Irish American (MIA)
“The History of Oral History”, Rebecca Sharpless, Handbook of Oral History, ed. Tomas L. Charlton, Lois
E. Myers, and Rebecca Sharpless
“Looking for Jimmy”, Peter Quinn, MIA
“The Future of Irish America”, Peter Quinn, MIA
Assignment:
Read oral interview of Ed Moloney by Mick Maloney and select excerpts for a story board
Week 2
September 10
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
Read:
“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 17
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 excerpt selections from Week 1 assignment
Discuss interviewing techniques, how to ask questions, determine focus/structure of interview
Review particular histories/context of candidates for 2011
Review written assignment on scope and content essay
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: Thompson, “Evidence” and “Memory and the Self”, pp 118-189
Remembering Ahanagran, Richard White
Memory Exercise due for discussion October 1. See Blackboard for details
Assignment: Complete first draft of questions for guest interview, Ray O’Hanlon
Due Sept. 24
Week 4
September 24
Memory: The Science and the Flaws
“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
Student led discussion on reading topics including White’s Ahanagran
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
Screen: Sleuthing Mary Shanley
Week 5
October 1
Memory/Oral History as a Resource/propaganda tool
Screen Bloody Sunday
Memory exercises discussed
Week 6
October 8:
Interview Guest: Ray O’Hanlon
Read:
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 (reader)
Oral History and Archives: Documenting Context”, James E. Fogerty
Assignment:
Interview Essay – details on line
Due: October 22
Week 7
October 15
HOLIDAY
Week 8
October 22
Mapping: Digital Technology and the Archives
Read:
Thompson, 265-290
Maura Mulligan, Call of the Lark
Assignment: TBA
Week 9
October 29
Stewardship/Preservation/Archiving
Memoirs and oral history
Class:
Visit by Memoirist Maura Mulligan
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:
“Publishing Oral History: Oral Exchange and Print Culture,” Richard Candida Smith
“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
Ronald Grede, “Oral History as Evidence”
Assignment:
Written vs. Oral, compare oral history to memoir, essay details on line
Due: November 5
Week 9
November 5
Facts vs. Truth: Significance of Oral History
Class:
Discuss significance of oral histories: value as evidence, resource
Assignment:
Prepare the following presentation for November 28:
Evaluate a website that uses oral history and be prepared to make a short presentation on it to class.
Submit a two page written summary (500-750 words) of your evaluation; it should include
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 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
This site is moving/try it but it may not work.
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
Week 11
November 12
Visit to St. Francis and tour of church: oral history and documentaries
Individual appointments with Professor Almeida to review mapping project status to date
November 19
Mapping Project Status
Review of Final Interview Project
Week 12
November 25
THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
Class TBA may be trip to the library for a research session
Week 13
December 3
Web Site Critique Presentations
Class:
Student presentations of website critiques (November 8 assignment)
Discuss GIH website
Give examples of how and where current GH Oral Histories have been cited.
Assignment:
Complete final project.
Week 15
December 10
Final Projects
Class:
Present final projects