Oral History Commons^™

Chann, Marpheen, Kendall Garland, Meghan Horner

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Marpheen Chann is a Cambodian, Asian-American, gay man living in Portland, Maine. He was born in California to an immigrant mother and later moved to Maine, then adopted by a white, Evangelical family. He spent his childhood in the church and would later attend Valley Forge Christian College. Then later transferring to USM to earn a Bachelor’s in Political Science and later attended Maine Law. Chann participates in advocacy work with organizations, such as the Equality Community Center and is the president of Khmer Maine. He currently works for the Good Shepard Food Bank as their Community Impact Manager.

Please …

Gifford, Dan, Erin Schott, Hailey Kamenides

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Dan Gifford is a gay white man who grew up in Arkansas, and eventually moved to Maine with his partner. Dan is now an employee at the Portland Museum of Art, where he enjoys his job and being close to art. Dan has always known he was gay, yet to some in Arkansas this was viewed in a negative light or simply swept under the rug. Dan explains that the first time he visited Maine he felt “home”, and enjoys that he can be his true authentic self here, without the scrutiny that he experienced in the South. Dan also …

Hine, Rook, Ty Bolduc

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Rook Hine is a 47-year-old transfemme non-binary person from Connecticut. In this interview, Hine describe their life experiences, from challenges in her household, zir benefits and complications within education, and finding their identity as ze grew up. They discuss masking, performing arts as an outlet for gender expression, activism in college and beyond. Ze also mentions developing their non-binary identity, use of the term metagender, polyamory, and internalized transphobia, as well as adventures around the country - attending Sarah Lawrence College in New York, spending time in New Orleans as a tarot card reader, stripper, and phone sex operator after …

Linus Babcock, Oral History Interview, 2022, Cellach Allen

COVID-19 Oral Histories

In October and November of 2022, You Li's Journalism 313 students conducted oral history interviews with one another to document the student experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this interview, EMU undergraduate Linus Babcock describes the early days of COVID, the initial shutdown of the university and the experience of moving back home with family and siblings.

Labbe, Roland, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Roland Labbe discusses growing up in Maine in Millinocket, Winterport, and Lewiston, before moving to Worcester, MA at 14 with an older lover. He also talks about his time as a young man in New York City; that made him realize that Portland needed a gay bar which he opened in 1967: “Roland’s Tavern” on Forest Ave. He shares stories about challenges he faced in opening Portland’s first gay bar, including licensing struggles with the city of Portland and hostility from police and some of the public. He discusses his tremendously supportive family, with his mother and siblings often working …

Macnaughton, Daniel, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Dan MacNaughton was born in 1955 in Bangor, Maine, and raised in Hampden, Maine with his mother, father, and older brother. He came out as gay in high school with supportive teachers and classmates who were either supportive or indifferent. However, he had deeply internalized homophobic attitudes and believed that being gay meant he had very limited employment options. In college at the University of Maine Orono, MacNaughton became active in the newly formed Wilde Stein student group where he became the first Vice-Chair of the club, met Sturgis Haskins, and became involved in educational efforts on campus. He also …

We4: Leisure Quotes, Lance Gibbs Phd

We Exist Series 4: Quotes

Welcome to the fourth exhibit in the series of “We Exist”. In this section we have selected quotes that represent and explain how Maine’s Black residents’ create the processes behind their engagement in particular leisure activities. The quotes also highlight the particular types of leisure activities that Maine’s Black residents suggest that they are involved in. The quotes are taken from transcripts of the oral history project "'Home Is Where I Make It': African American Community and Activism in Greater Portland, Maine”. The interview subjects are all native to Maine or are longtime residents of Maine. The original intent of …

Tom Coyne On A Walking Tour, University Libraries

East Campus Oral Histories

Tom Coyne leads Cassie Kotrch on a personal walking tour around East Campus on Prospect Hill in the fall of 2022. Tom talks about his time working at WMU and living in the houses on East Campus as they walk around Heritage Hall and Walwood.

Critique Beyond Judgment: Exploring Testimony And Truth In The Classroom, Sean Sidky

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This essay offers a set of strategies for utilizing the words of survivors and of witnesses to genocide in the classroom. Including the voices of survivors and victims in our classroom conversations about genocide, its impact, representation, and the possibilities for its prevention is crucial to an ethical and wholistic pedagogy of genocide. Discussion of these events in the classroom often finds us confronting questions from students about truth, historical accuracy, authenticity, and authority. Addressing such questions requires careful framing that takes into account student assumptions and cultural discourses about memory and witnessing, as we work with students to develop …

Id138 Oral History, Uniting Cultures

Uniting Cultures: Who We Are, How We Got Here: Collecting Stories Oral History Collection

Woman born in the mid 60s in Guatemala. Talks about growing up in poverty in Guatemala, near the border with Belize. She came to the west coast of the United States and then with her child, moved to St. James. Throughout her life she worked hard, relied on her faith in God, and survived many challenges.

Gatumba Massacre, Background Essay, Christopher Davey, Ezra Schrader, Fidele Sebahizi, Jean Paul Iranzi

Background

On August 13th 2004, 166 people were killed and 106 were wounded at the UN’s Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi. Nearly all the victims were members of the Banyamulenge community, a Congolese Tutsi ethnic group who were deliberately targeted in the attack. The massacre was carried out by the Forces Nationales pour la Liberation (FNL), a Hutu supremacist rebel group fighting in Burundi’s civil war. Understanding the Gatumba Massacre requires understanding what forced those Banyamulenge refugees to flee their homes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and why the FNL targeted them. This background essay addresses the context …

El Canto Del Río Ayampe Que Corre En La Mitad: “La Narración Socioecológica Y El Conflicto Territorial Entre La Comuna Ancestral Las Tunas Y El Recinto De Ayampe”, María Juanita Durán González

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

En La Comuna Ancestral Las Tunas existe un legado de narración socioecológica, o socioecological storytelling. Las historias cuentan las luchas medioambientales del pasado en defensa de su tierra colectiva y las riquezas que viven en ella. Pero, como se escucha por las voces de los comuneros, la pelea por proteger su territorio ancestral es constante. Actualmente, enfrentan un conflicto territorial contra el poblado de Ayampe que busca empoderarse del territorio para institucionalizar su independencia. Cuentan que los líderes de la independencia no tienen raíces ancestrales en Ayampe, pero quieren hacer crecer su dominio para que eventualmente se incluya el Río …

Tom Coyne And The Wmu Presidents, University Libraries

East Campus Oral Histories

WMU Alum and VP Emeritus for Student Services Thomas Coyne sits with Cassie Kotrch at the Zhang Legacy and Collections Center to talk about his time as a student and then employee at WMU, detailing his work with President Miller, living on East Campus, and his work in other positions at the university as well as his relationship with the administration through the years.

Rethinking Ethical Questions In Life-History Interview Research, Anne Rothe

The Qualitative Report

Having interviewed Germans who emigrated to Israel and, in most cases, converted to Judaism, I experienced a paralyzing sense of ethical conflict when I began analyzing the first order discourse my participants and I had co-constructed to transform it into the second-order discourse of research publications. So, I set out to rethink the ethics of life-history interview research. My quest into our ethical responsibilities began with rule-based deontological and consequentialist ethics and the guidelines in the social sciences they inform. It led me to reconsider such core notions as informed consent, privacy, and risk-benefit analysis. I came to realize that …

Author Interview With Novelist Esther Laforce, Esther Laforce

Green Humanities: A Journal of Ecological Thought in Literature, Philosophy & the Arts

Novelist's Corner:

Author Interview with novelist Esther Laforce, author of: In the Early Days of the Anthropocene (Aux premiers temps de l’Anthropocène). Ottawa, CA: Leméac Editeur, 2018

Full Issue

The Forum: Journal of History

No abstract provided.

“Filipinos In California, Community, And Identity”: A Personal Inquiry, Sam T. Mcclintock

The Forum: Journal of History

No abstract provided.

"Texas, "Our" Texas: My Family's Deep Roots In The Lone Star State", Karen Kossie-Chernyshev

Department of History, Geography and General Studies

In this essay, Karen Kossie-Chernyshev traces her family's connections to Texas history, from Mexican Texas history to the present.

John Winchell: Grad Student To Archives Curator, University Libraries

East Campus Oral Histories

WMU Archives Curator John Winchell sits with Cassie Kotrch at the Zhang Legacy and Collections Center to share his stories and memories from his time as a grad student and working on East Campus.

Sharon Carlson Part 2: An Expert On Historic Wmu, University Libraries

East Campus Oral Histories

Dr. Sharon Carlson, Professor Emerita and Archival Consultant, sits for her second of two interviews with Cassie Kotrch at the Zhang Legacy and Collections Center to share her stories and memories during her time working at the Archives and on East Campus.