Oral History Commons^™

Preserving Digital Oral Histories, Douglas A. Boyd

Library Presentations

This presentation addresses considerations for preserving audiovisual materials and large file formats.

Rita, Rita, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Rita Alkhaledy grew up in Sadr City, a poor suburb of Baghdad. Her father is an Iraqi Arab and her mother was Kurdish Iranian. Her mother lived in fear that she would be cast out of Baghdad as being an outsider in Iraq was frowned upon. Her father served in the Iraqi army in the 80s and was gone a great deal, leading to a strained relationship. Their relationship was mended when her mother died from cancer.

After the Iraq war, Rita and her brothers realized that their lives were in danger. They had to move from house to house …

Ua94/6/2/15 Athletes, Beggars & Rock Stars (Or) Forget About The Olympics Tony, Ross Munro

Student/Alumni Personal Papers

Reminiscences of former WKU track athlete Ross Munro regarding the exploits of Swag Hartel, Nick Rose, Chris Ridler, Tony Staynings and other members of the 1973 track team.

Ua94/6/2/15 Incident At Hangman Valley, Ross Munro

Student/Alumni Personal Papers

Reminiscences of former WKU track athlete Ross Munro regarding the 1973 National Collegiate Cross Country Championship held in Spokane, Washington.

Mánang Bidáy: Ang Imahen Ng Babae Na Pinatitingkad Ng Pangunahing Ideya At Bisang Pandamdamin Ng Awiting Bayan, Claudette M. Ulit

Filipino Faculty Publications

Itinatampok ng awiting-bayang Mánang Bidáy ang kultura ng pagliligawan ng mga Ilocano. Matutunghayan dito ang panunuyo ng isang lalaki sa Ilocanang si Mánang Bidáy na nagpamalas ng paninindigan sa kaniyang sariling pagpapasiya. Sa gayon, mainam itong lunsaran ng pagtalakay sa imahen ng babae na pinatitingkad pang lalo ng pangunahing ideya at bisang pandamdamin ng nabanggit na awitin.

Common Cause: An Oral History Of The World War Ii Home Front, Devin Mckinney, Michael J. Birkner

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

In excerpts drawn from Musselman Library's Oral History Archive, the World War II years are recalled by dozens of the men and women—adults, teenagers, children—who endured them on the home front. The home front experience was by turns exhilarating, fearsome, depressing, and banal. Some civilians had it relatively easy, while others had it hard. Righteous confidence was offset by looming uncertainty, patriotism was often buttressed by bigotry, and the joys of victory and reunion were shadowed by irreplaceable losses. In this volume, the speech of ordinary citizens in extraordinary times is augmented by abundant illustration, much of it in …

Ali, Ali, Twila Bird

TSOS Interview Gallery

At eighteen fate placed Ali and his family in the center of hostilities in northern Afghanistan. Warring militant factions killed hundreds of people in his village. Ali helped identify and bury dozens of his friends and neighbors in a mass grave.

We spent days and nights in the mountains and blocked on the borders. I crossed the mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan walking with my handicap. Then it took us another sixteen hours to cross the border between Pakistan and Iran, also in very high mountains of more than 2500 meters. The Iranian police were killing people on the …

Jeanusnat, Jeanusnat, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Jeanusnat’s father, who was chief of a Nigerian community, was murdered by an enemy community. The murderer intended to kill Jeanusnat and his mother as well, but they fled to neighboring Niger. There, Jeanusnat parted ways with his mother, who stayed at the church with a family, and Jeanusnat crossed into Libya in the back of a truck. But once in Libya, danger persisted. He was confronted by some robbers who stabbed him with a knife and beat him, leaving injuries on his legs and shoulder. In Tripoli, a man offered him temporary refuge, where Jeanusnat stayed until he decided …

Growing Economic Possibility In Appalachia: Stories Of Relocalization And Representation On Stinking Creek, Kathryn Engle

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This project explores the agricultural heritage and current social landscape of the Stinking Creek community of Knox County, Kentucky, and the legacy of the local nonprofit organization the Lend-A-Hand Center. Through participatory research, this project presents a reflexive account of the Lend-A-Hand Center Grow Appalachia Gardening Program examining the diverse economy of the Stinking Creek watershed and possibilities for new economic imaginings and post-coal futures for central Appalachia. This dissertation includes an oral history project, a theoretical examination, and an ethnographic reflection, bridging several literatures in the fields of agricultural history, Appalachian Studies, Participatory Action Research, research within the diverse …

Stasi Brainwashing In The Gdr 1957 - 1990, Jacob H. Solbrig, Jacob Hagen Solbrig

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the methods used by the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), more commonly known as the Stasi, or East German secret police, for extraction of information from citizens of the German Democratic Republic for the purpose of espionage and covert operations inside East Germany, as it pertains to the deliberate brainwashing of East German citizens. As one of the most efficient intelligence agencies to ever exist, the Stasi’s main purpose was to monitor the population, gather intelligence, and collect or turn informants. They used brainwashing techniques to control the people of the GDR, keeping the populace paralyzed with fear …

Oral History In A Journalism Course: Sharing Stories And Reporting News About Public Education In Kentucky, Rochele Rosa

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Oral history as a method of gathering information is nothing new. However, in journalism, the method is gaining acceptance as a new, enriching way to report news, showing how issues and topics impact people.

The Murray State University JMC 397 Reporting for Print Media class recorded community oral history as part of an intensive focus on education reporting in fall 2017. Although many facets of the education “beat” were explored, students devoted much of the semester investigating and reporting the issues and challenges facing public education in Kentucky, from the K-12 to higher education levels. For the project to become …

Forggett, Essie (Fa 1104), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1104. Student paper titled “Slavery in Green County” in which Essie Forggett details the history of the settlement of Green County and its eventual dependence upon slave labor. Forggett also includes stories of slave auctions, punishments, attempted escapes, and religious practices of slaves throughout the region. Paper is based on information collected by Forggett from county clerk records and in-person interviews with slave descendants.

An Analysis Of The October 2017 Las Vegas Massacre, Gregg Lee Carter

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Nicole Ludwig, Tsos, Nicole Ludwig

TSOS Interview Gallery

In September 2016, Nicole Ludwig led a group of her neighbors in Germany to assist newly-arrived Syrian and Afghani refugees. The volunteers collected clothing and toys, organized activities and field trips for the refugee children, and taught them German. Later, the volunteers offered homework support and led library reading groups. For the adult refugees, the volunteers provided cultural assimilation instruction and cooking classes. While there were occasional challenges to working together, the volunteers and refugees fostered a collaborative system and even hosted a Christmas party, during which one elderly Syrian man said, “This is one of the best memories I …

Layla, Layla, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Layla left Ethiopia 10 years ago to look for work opportunities. She left behind a father and three brothers. She went to Syria on a three-year work contract. She worked in a house and learned Arabic. She then went to Turkey by boat and then went on to Greece for 5 years. She worked and learned the Greek language. When she became pregnant she had to stop working. She travelled to Serbia to Macedonia to Austria all on foot. Then the Red Cross moved Layla and her daughter to Giessen, Germany where a roommate periodically beat her baby. Seeking safety …

Ironies Abound When Seeking To Understand Our Nations Gun Violence: The Las Vegas Massacre, Gregg Lee Carter

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

If there is ever a time to improve the public’s understanding of gun violence, it is when its attention has been grabbed, which sadly is exactly what a mass shooting does—especially when it is on the scale of the tragedy that occurred in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017 (59 shot dead; another 527 injured). Key questions involving mass shootings include their incidence and whether stronger gun control laws can reduce not only them, in particular, but also gun violence in general. Examination of these questions reveals multiple ironies, ironies that indicate how difficult it has become to resolve the …

Fadel, Tsos, Fadel

TSOS Interview Gallery

Fadel's family was originally from Palestine. However, for reasons he couldn’t recall, they moved to Libya, where Fadel was born, and he grew up there. He recalled that life inLibya used to be good, but that it became dangerous. Fadel came to Italy alone. His parents died and left him nothing seven years ago. His siblings died as well. He came to Italy 6 months ago seeking asylum by way of Tripoli to Sabratha, and then to Sardinia and Calabria. He has been living on the streets, and because he couldn’t provide an address, he was denied asylum

Katja, Ketevahi 'Katje', Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Ketevahi “Katja” is from Georgia. She’s in her late 40’s. She grew up on a farm in the country and became the financial support for her family after her mother died and her father became “emaciated.” When Putin came to power, diplomatic ties deteriorated between Georgia and Russia, which eventually led to war. She fled her country using forged documents and first worked in Turkey but has now lived in Naples for nine years and regularly sends money home to her brother, who cares for their father.

Katja expresses her feelings about war, government, liberty, and what it means to …

Felix, Tsos, Felix

TSOS Interview Gallery

Felix is originally from Nigeria and has now been inItaly under a year. He came from a family with a polygamous father who “married” multiple wives illegally. After returning home from a service mission for his church, which his father supported, Felix began to study engineering. At some point conflict arose within the family that causedFelix to have to flee.He was smuggled through Niger to Libya, losing several friends along the way.There he was held for ransom, before taking a treacherous voyage across the sea in an overfilled boat, where he witnessed several drown. Now he lives in a camp …

Momo, Momo, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

When Momo was only nine years old, he returned home to find his parents and his six sisters and four brothers had been killed in their own home. Sometime after that, he and his uncle left Somalia together to live in Yemen. He stayed in Yemen until he was sixteen, but when things became unsafe there, he moved to Libya. He had hoped to get on a boat in Libya to go somewhere for a new life, but he was thrown in prison instead. He was harassed and told to ask his family to send money so that he could …

Making Voices Heard: Collecting And Sharing Oral Histories From Users Of Segregated Libraries In The South (Presentation For The Oral History Association Annual Meeting, October 2017), Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

From the conference program: "This presentation reviews the progress and objectives of a federally-funded, 3-year oral history project that explores how segregated Carnegie libraries were used as places of community-making, interaction, and learning for African Americans before integration in the 1960s. Known then as “Carnegie colored libraries,” these public libraries opened in eight southern states between 1900 and 1925 and were an extension of the well-known library development program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Some operated for as many as six decades until, by the 1970s, most had closed or were integrated into the library systems of …

Exploring The Educational Potential Of A Video-Interview With A Shoah Survivor, Katalin Eszter Morgan

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article aims to establish what the education potential is of video-interviews with Shoah survivors that have been made available as historical sources for learners in secondary schools. It does so by looking at some of the learner tasks pertaining to one selected video-interview and by using empirical data consisting of masters students’ responses to the same interview. After contextualising the research within the intersecting field of video-testimony and Holocaust education, a brief overview of the DVD medium called “Zeugen der Shoah” (“Witnesses of the Shoah”) is presented. Thereafter the tool used for the analysis is explained. According to three …

Oral History Of Migrants, Shira Klein

History Teaching Resources

This is a collection of collections of oral histories by migrants that can be used both for teaching and for research purposes.

Zycie W Ameryce: Life In America (Poster), Brynn A. Cotter

Summer Research Program

Poster complementing author's summer research project exploring the history of the Polish-American community of Worcester, Massachusetts centered on the parish of Our Lady of Czestochowa and how its members responded to the forces of Americanization. Research in area archives such as the Worcester Historical Museum, the Worcester Public Library, and at Our Lady of Czestochowa’s rectory and its parish school of Saint Mary’s, as well as oral history interviews with past and longtime members of the community test the assumption that the story of Worcester’s Polish community is one of loss and decline. On the contrary, Polish-American efforts to preserve …

Zycie W Ameryce: Life In America, Brynn A. Cotter

Summer Research Program

My project explores the history of the Polish-American community of Worcester, Massachusetts centered on the parish of Our Lady of Czestochowa and how its members responded to the forces of Americanization. Like many ethnic groups new to America, Polish-Americans and Polish immigrants in the twentieth century had to adapt in a world that demanded conformity in exchange for social mobility and departure from tradition and community. Over eight weeks, I conducted research in area archives such as the Worcester Historical Museum, the Worcester Public Library, and at Our Lady of Czestochowa’s rectory and its parish school of Saint Mary’s, as …

Conflicting Philosophies: Two Librarians And A Presidential Bibliophile, Meg Miner

Scholarly Publications

This case study explores how one personal interest of President Minor Myers, jr.—that of a life-long book collector—influenced the University’s library collections and its leaders. Myers arrived with a desire to make IWU a nationally recognized, Phi Beta Kappa–affiliated institution. As one tactic for achieving these goals, Myers actively engaged in library collection development through practices shaped by his methods of book collecting. Bulk acquisitions—through gifts-in-kind and lot purchases—and a prohibition on weeding aided in his pursuits. His vision for the library challenged the style of the first university librarian (UL) who resigned two years after Myers’ arrival. The actions …

Editor's Introduction, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

Introduction to African Catholicism: Contemporary Issues: Volume: 1, Issue 2 of the Journal of Global Catholicism

Oral History: John Bartosiewicz

Zycie w Ameryce: A Collection of Polish-American Oral Histories

This conversation is an oral history interview with a former member of Worcester’s Polish-American community. The interview touches on a variety of aspects of life in the community, from school and parish life, to Polishness and the significance of language, and the effects of suburbanization.

Interview keywords: St. Mary’s, church / parish, all Polish, PNI, women’s guild, basketball, immigrant, Polishness, language, John Paul II, I-290, suburbs.

Oral History: Richard Lewandowski

Zycie w Ameryce: A Collection of Polish-American Oral Histories

This conversation is an oral history interview with a former member of Worcester’s Polish-American community. The interview discusses much about the Polish-American experience, from the Polish diaspora, the effects of I-290 and discrimination on the community in Worcester, as well as the effect of global events such as the rise of Solidarity on the Worcester parish.

Interview keywords: St. Mary’s, English, displaced people, I-290, Polish-American parish, Solidarity, Polishness, John Paul II, discrimination, education, Church

Oral History: ​Carol Fredette

Zycie w Ameryce: A Collection of Polish-American Oral Histories

This conversation is an oral history interview with a former teacher at the Polish-American high school in Worcester, Saint Mary’s. The interviewee is not Polish, but of Lebanese descent, so provides the point of view of someone who came from outside the community yet still became a part of it. The interview touches on the rising importance of the English language, the Church’s centrality, ethnic parishes, school life, and high school basketball.

Interview keywords: English, ethnic parish, church, nun, club, basketball