Oral History Commons^™

Catholicism In Context: Religious Practice In Latin America, Gustavo Morello Sj

Journal of Global Catholicism

A critical problem to study Catholicism in the context of Latin American modernity, is that the conceptual tools we use to study religion were designed to understand the transformations that modernity provoked in European religiosity. Studies on the religion of Latin Americans have largely explored the religiosity of the population through surveys that measure attendance, adherence and affiliation. While some anthropologists have explored religious practices among particular groups, we do not know how ordinary, urban Latin Americans practice religion. To fill this gap, a group of researchers from Boston College, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Catholic University of Córdoba, and …

Fraternity, Martyrdom And Peace In Burundi: The Forty Servants Of God Of Buta, Jodi Mikalachki

Journal of Global Catholicism

During Burundi's 1993-2005 civil war, students at Buta Minor Seminary were ordered at gunpoint to separate by ethnicity—Hutus over here, Tutsis over there! They chose instead to join hands and affirm their common identity as children of God. The forty students killed were quickly proclaimed martyrs of fraternity. Their costly solidarity defused the cry for reprisals and continues to inspire Burundians and others on the path of reconciliation. Drawing on fifty interviews with survivors, parents of martyrs, neighbors, religious leaders and other Burundian intellectuals, this essay examines how Burundian Catholics understand the significance of the Buta martyrdom to their …

Editor's Introduction, Mathew N. Schmalz

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Pride, Shame And Tv Dinners - Honour And Shame, Edward Brennan

Conference Papers

This paper critiques a dominant narrative in the history of Irish television, which typically equate television’s arrival with the launch of RTÉ in 1961 and interpret its development through a state-centred, modernisation framework. Drawing on life-story interviews with people who experienced television in Ireland during the 1950s and 1960s, the research challenges methodological nationalism by foregrounding memory as a source. It reveals how television was an uncertain status object that carried meanings of pride, shame, discipline, and cultural value. Theoretically informed by Bourdieu, Halbwachs, and Inglis, the paper analyses recollection as practical social action. Early television consumption was mediated by …

An Intergenerational Photo Exploration Of Self Care Actions In Self-Identifying Strong Black Women, Vanessa Patrice Goodar

Dissertations

The current study sought to expand upon the Giscombé Superwoman Schema (2010) specifically exploring the role of vulnerability resistance and help obligation as potential barriers to changing comprehensive self-care health commitments in self-identifying Strong Black Women (SBW). The Superwoman Schema characteristics of vulnerability resistance and help obligation along with socio-economic factors of income, religious affiliation and marital status were assessed in the project using a visual-ethnography approach to Photo Voice methods and five intergenerational focus groups of SBW's born between 1946 and 2002. The collective self-care knowledge of these eighteen participants was analyzed using a participatory action research discussion framework …

Evaluation Of The Federal Writers' Project, Brenna M. Hadley

Student Publications

This essay examines an interview with a former slave, Sarah Graves. The interview is a product of the Federal Writers' Project, a government funded program created during the Great Depression. I address the possible problems that arise when working with this type of memory source (an interview), and how to work around them. This essay also ponders the reasoning why certain bits of information were included in the interview, and why others were excluded.

The Sarah Gudger Interview: An Analysis, Mckenna C. White

Student Publications

During the Great Depression, a New Deal project intended to create jobs was the Federal Writer's Project. One aspect of this project, the Slave Narrative Project, involved the interviews of over 2,000 former slaves and culminated in a federal collection of information on the lives of enslaved people. This paper focuses on the interview of Sarah Gudger, a 121 year-old former slave from North Carolina. It includes an overview of the content included and excluded from the interview in addition to an analysis of the interview including factors that may have positively or negatively impacted the interview's content, as well …

William "Bill" Austin Smith Sr., Kelli Johnson

Oral Histories – NPS AACR Civil Rights In Appalachia Grant

Kelli Johnson conducting an oral history interview with Bill Smith.

This oral history is part of the National Park Service African American Civil Rights History and Appalachia Grant Program.

Below-Deck: The Specialist Sailor In World War Ii, Gregory Falcon

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

U.S. Navy ships were made up of many unexpected jobs during World War II. Traditional war histories say little about sailors who rarely saw direct combat below active war decks but instead worked skilled jobs. Specialized sailors were often unseen as they worked below the waterline as, for example, electrician’s mates and boiler room firemen. These jobs were pivotal to keeping the ship running and allowed men to make use of their valuable time in the navy. This thesis argues that, although evolving naval culture led men to enter for various reasons, many entered to enhance their future career during …

Beirut/The Other Side Of The City: The Impact Of Visual Texture Production Of The Lebanese Postmemory Generation, 1989 - Present, Mohamed Moustafa Gameel Ebada

Theses and Dissertations

In 1989, after the Ta'if agreement, the war in Lebanon started to fade, which ended years of one of the most destructive civil conflicts in the region with no decisive winner or loser. The year also marked the birth of a new Lebanese generation who did not experience the war in person. It is a generation of postmemory, a term Maria Hirsch coined to describe the reminisces of those who did not have a personal encounter with past traumatic events. However, it was not before February 2005, when Rafic Al-Hariri's violent assassination occurred, when the postmemory generation started to question …

Victim Impact: The Manson Murders And The Rise Of The Victims’ Rights Movement, Merrill W. Steeg

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Ladies First: The Ways Women And Girls Affected Change In The Civil Rights Movement In New Orleans, Terri R. Rushing

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

New Orleans Historical is a project of the Midlo Center for New Orleans Studies in the History Department of the University of New Orleans. This thesis and tour presents and discusses the “Ladies First” tour which contains seven tour stops on New Orleans Historical. The tour chronicles seven women and girls who have advanced the cause of equal rights and justice in the metropolitan region of New Orleans, Louisiana between 1950 and 1975. This thesis examines the work of seven key figures: Rosa Keller, Doratha “Dodie” Simmons, Marie Ortiz, Sybil Morial, and Dorothy Mae Taylor; and participants in the Civil …

Don’T Be Myth-Taken: The Perpetuation Of Historical Myths In New Orleans Tourism, Madeleine R. Roach

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The mythology that surrounds the city of New Orleans is expansive. In a city well known for its ghosts and culture, the tourism industry utilizes stories and mythology to entice tourists to visit the city. However, the perpetuation of myths as historical facts or as actual events to an unknowing public can cause more harm than good to the city and the understanding of its past. This essay utilizes interviews with current New Orleans Tour Guides to examines how the tourism industry in New Orleans presents mythology and historical evidence to tourists. This essay examines tours and tourism materials to …

Religious Mega-Events And Their Assemblages In Devotional Pilgrimages: The Case Of Círio De Nazaré In Belém, Pará State, Brazil, José Rogério Lopes, André Luiz Da Silva

Journal of Global Catholicism

The article presents a typological categorization of contemporary mega-events and their characteristics, in order to interpret the assemblages mobilized by sectors of the Catholic Church in traditional devotional pilgrimages in the northern region of Brazil. It uses ethnographic accounts of the Círio de Nazaré feast, in Belém, Pará state, Brazil, considered the largest Catholic procession in the West, in order to analyze how the promotion of this event is organized through institutional and market logics that overlap with the religious phenomenon, evincing a contemporary trend. These assemblages open a field of possibilities for institutional religious reproduction and generate concentric flows …

Young Brazilian Catholics Reaffiliating: A Case Study In The City Of Campos, Rj, Brazil, Cecilia L. Mariz, Wânia Amélia Belchior Mesquita, Michelle Piraciaba Araújo

Journal of Global Catholicism

Through a case study in Campos, a northern city of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, this article analyzes reports from young people who state that they have undergone a process of revival or reactivation of their Catholic faith. They all declared to have participated in the “St Andrew’s School of Evangelization.” They also mentioned having experienced an "encounter with God." Their narratives were similar to conversion accounts reported by practitioners of other religious traditions. The interviewees describe faith as a personal choice, and emphasize the need for religious study and the value of religious knowledge. To what extent these values …

Contemporary Brazilian Catholicism And Healing Practices: Notes On Environmentalism And Medicalization, Juliano F. Almeida

Journal of Global Catholicism

Anthropological studies on Brazilian Catholicism traditionally focused on popular variants of this religious practice and their relationship with the official Catholicism. Encouraged by recent anthropological perspectives, which highlight the relevance of devoting researches not only on the margins, but also on the center of social practices, this paper analyzes contemporary practices of Brazilian Catholic friars and priests on health promotion. The analysis of their publications (books that include practices and tips on health and that became best sellers etc.), as well as interviews, allows us to perceive a process of environmentalization on the contemporary Brazilian Catholicism. This process seems to …

Editor's Introduction, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Julian Gunther Interview About Pandemic Life 2021, Kendra Chavez-Murphy

Oral Histories HIST300, Spring 2021

In this interview, Kendra Chavez-Murphy interviews classmate Julian Gunther about pandemic life. Topics range from: online school, music, and family health.

Community History In Minnesota During A Pandemic: What Comes Next?, Adam Stephen Guy Smith, Daardi Sizemore Mixon

Library Services Publications

Three Minnesota cultural heritage organizations developed distinctly different community history projects to document the COVID-19 Pandemic. Anoka County Historical Society distributed monthly surveys asking questions relevant to the community at the time while encouraging the public to submit documentation for the archives. Hennepin County Library rapidly expanded its nascent web archiving program to capture websites of Minneapolis and suburban community organizations affected by and responding to the pandemic. Minnesota State University, Mankato developed a community history project that incorporated the international student experience to explore how our students and their families responded to the pandemic throughout the summer.

This presentation …

Mckenna Johnston Oral History Interview 4/18/2021, Mckenna M. Johnston, Tony Atkinson, Cheri Atkinson

Oral Histories HIST300, Spring 2021

No abstract provided.

Mckenna Johnston Oral History Interview 2/23/2021, Mckenna M. Johnston, Leo Williams

Oral Histories HIST300, Spring 2021

No abstract provided.

The Roosevelt School: A Tiger's Place In The History Of Public-School Integration, Kenya L. Lane

Graduate Theses

South Carolina, like many southern states, spent fifteen years avoiding complete compliance with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka ruling to desegregate schools. Despite the statewide attempts to keep schools segregated, some South Carolina school districts slowly made strides to integrate with little resistance. By the mid 1960s, the Clover School District, even with trepidation, began to integrate its schools. These efforts to give African American students equal access often came at a cost. The process of integration often involved diminishing the value and very presence of traditionally all-black public schools.

The Roosevelt School, Clover’s only all-black …

Stories From Both Sides Of The Hedge: A History Of And Digital Exhibit For The National Hansen's Disease Museum, Laura Turner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The national leprosarium of the United States, located in Carville, Louisiana, started as the Louisiana Leper Home in 1894. Since Louisiana contained the largest endemic population in the contiguous United States of people suffering from leprosy, or Hansen’s disease as it would later be known, and maintained a successful institution dedicated to the care of such patients, the federal government purchased the leprosarium for national use in 1921. Although the national leprosarium was closed as a hospital in 1999, a small analog museum located on site preserves the history of the facility, the lives of the former patients, and tireless …

Amplifying Collections With Oral Histories In A Virtual World: The Student Help Lived Experience Project At Queens College Cuny, Annie E. Tummino, Victoria Fernandez

Publications and Research

In response to the challenges brought on by the onset of the pandemic, the Queens College Special Collection and Archives (SCA) created the “Student Help: Lived Experience” student fellowship, designed to be completely remote. The project is an initiative to further document the activities of Queens College students who participated in both the Virginia and South Jamaica Student Help Projects in the early to mid-1960s. The Virginia Student Help Project was an intensive education effort during the summer of 1963 in Prince Edward County, Virginia where public schools were closed for five years in massive resistance to integration. The Jamaica …

Racial Terror Lynching In Northwest Arkansas: Recounting Of The Story Of Three Enslaved Males Lynched In 1856 In Washington County - Documentary, Obed Lamy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While Northwest Arkansas is considered as diverse and progressive today, it also shares a common history of racial violence, and yet almost unknown, with the Southern United-States. Little is being said about the slave plantations in Elkins, racial cleansing in Springdale, or public spectacle lynchings in Fayetteville. This is because white people who hold political and economic power also control how history is written and decide what is to be learned from their perspectives. Marginalized communities, especially Black people, have not always had agency to tell their own stories. The lynchings of three enslaved males, Anthony, Aaron, and Randall, in …

Phyllis Hammel Oral History Interview April 19th, 2021, Henry B. Hammel

Oral Histories HIST300, Spring 2021

Oral History Interview with Phyllis Hammel.

1990'S Archdiocese Of Santa Fe Sex Abuse, Edgar Romero Ramos

Oral Histories HIST300, Spring 2021

In light of the sexual abuse allegations posed against Cardinal Theodore McCarrick in 2018; it seemed appropriate to delve into a deeper historical narrative regarding the first wave of sexual abuse allegations posed against the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

Catholics & Cultures: A Panoramic View In Search Of Greater Understanding, Stephanie M. Wong

Journal of Global Catholicism

While internet-based technologies can open up greater awareness of the world or create self-perpetuating echo-chambers, the Catholics & Cultures project aspires to do the former. Aiming to ‘widen the lens’ on the variety of Catholic communities and practices, the site delivers on this goal by introducing viewers to a vast array of articles, pictures and videos from around the world. The organization of the site by country and by certain key features of lived Catholicism offers some interpretive guidance. However, the project could be strengthened as a pedagogical resource if it were more extensively thematized and hosted reflections on potential …

The Value Of Online Resources: Reflections On Teaching An Introduction To Global Christianity, Hillary Kaell

Journal of Global Catholicism

Reflecting on my experience teaching Introduction to Global Christianity, this essay ponders questions at the heart of undergraduate teaching: How can we encourage students to utilize online sources? How can we empower them to seek out answers to their questions? It offers practical examples of how I have used the Catholics & Cultures website in my classroom at a large public university. In particular, I reflect on my experience working with students who are mostly of Catholic heritage, but from many cultural and social contexts.

Ritual Among The Scilohtac: Global Catholicism, The Nacirema, And Interfaith Studies, Anita Houck

Journal of Global Catholicism

More than six decades after its publication, Horace Miner’s 1956 article “Body Ritual among the Nacirema” remains a reliable pedagogical tool, remarkably successful in helping students see their own ethnocentric biases. Catholics & Cultures has potential to do similar work. The site lacks some of what makes Miner’s text so effective, in particular its capacity to bring about a sudden shift in perception. The site also shares some of the article’s limitations, particularly in focusing on ritual to the relative exclusion of other aspects of religion. That said, the site can help students gain the religious literacy and develop the …