Oral History Commons^™

Chan Tagliabue Interviewed By Irene Burgess And Bruce Gentry, Chan Tagliabue, Irene Burgess, Bruce Gentry, Stephanie Opperman

Collecting the Past

Irene Burgess and Bruce Gentry interview Chan Tagliabue, who grew up in Milledgeville, GA, and received her BA in English and French from the Women’s College of Georgia in 1964.

Interview With Tom Hastings, Tom Hastings, Patricia A. Schechter

Conflict Resolution Oral Histories

Professor Tom Hastings was interviewed by Professor Patricia Schechter on May 8, 2020, in Portland, Oregon.

In this discussion, Dr. Hastings recounts his professional development as a scholar and practitioner of nonviolence. The first half of the story involves his youth, early activism, and college training in Wisconsin. The second half involves his move to Portland, Oregon in 2000 and his growing involvement with Conflict Resolution at PSU.

Narratives Afield: An Oral History Experience, J. D. Carruthers

Theses and Dissertations--History

This paper documents the comprehensive process of designing and executing a video oral history project through a case study of The Living History Oral History Project which is accessioned to the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History. Discussions of each phase of the project from concept, design, field work, archiving, and interpretation demonstrates how expanding technology increases the narrative opportunities presented by oral history research. The added feature of digital video technology creates visuality, which is an expansion on Alessandro Portelli’s concepts of orality and history telling. Since discoverability and accessibility is a traditional problem in using oral history …

Interview With Barbara Tint, Barbara Tint, Patricia A. Schechter

Conflict Resolution Oral Histories

Barbara Tint was interviewed by Patricia Schechter on May 29, 2020, in Portland, Oregon. Also participating in the interview are Alex Berg, Cleophas Chambliss, Oona Fisher Campbell, Jake Hutchins, Alex Ibarra, Lady J, Liza Schade, and Stephanie Vallance.

In this interview, Tint describes her path to academia through working as a counselor and with conflict resolution in a number of international settings. The discussion takes a theoretical turn when students inquired about the philosophical underpinnings of Tint's work.

Robinson, Richard, Jessica Toomey, Billale Fulli

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Richard Robinson is a sixty-seven-year-old gay man from Bangor, Maine. Rich knew from the moment he was born, he says, that he was gay. However, in order to avoid the consequences of coming out -- discrimination he could encounter from the Catholic church and the homophobic society at large -- Rich hid his sexuality for a large portion of his life. Rich was married to a woman for eighteen years. At the age of forty-one, he finally came out to his wife and to the rest of his family -- including his twin brother, John, who was also gay. After …

Robedee, Matthew, Hannah Gorham, Jason White

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Matthew (Mat) Robedee is a 35-year-old gay man who lives in Portland, Maine. For seven years, he was a health and outreach worker and former prevention programs manager for the Frannie Peabody Center, in Portland. He has also worked with organizations such as Portland Pride and Equality Maine and is currently a real estate agent.

Mat grew up in Buxton, Maine. In elementary school, he revealed to a friend that he thought he was gay. His friend reprimanded him, telling him never to tell anyone about his secret. That event set the tone for years to come, and Mat hid …

Reputation Versus Reality: An Oral History Of Vidor, Texas, Amanda Michel Saylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vidor, Texas is a town learning to manage its past with the Ku Klux Klan and the subsequent legacy of racial intolerance it now carries into the twenty-first century. By utilizing oral history, interviews with the residents (current and former) clarify how Vidorians see their past and form a collective memory. This memory study oral history project chronicles the historical narrative of Vidor and Vidorians based on oral histories of the interviewee’s point of view. It then highlights my mastery of relevant public history and oral history literature while reviewing the best practices of oral history as both a methodology …

Post-Partition Sikh Immigrant Experiences In The United States, Athamjit Singh Dhaddey

History

The project titled, "Post-Partition Sikh Immigrant Experiences in the United States," begins to explore the different factors that contributed to the migration of Sikhs to the United States. Beginning during the first decade of the 1900s, Sikhs began to migrate to the United States for a variety of reasons. It wasn't until the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 that we began to see these numbers increase dramatically. The main primary sources in this paper are oral histories from three of those immigrants during that time. With their stories, we are able to dive deeper into the different experiences …

Sage, Johnna Ossie

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Sage explored her highly religious upbringing and relationship with her family. She is of Greek descent and her Greek-American culture played a large role in shaping her identity. Her parents rejected her during her young adulthood due to her sexuality and Sage discussed the impact that the ostracization had on her development. Her positive experience with being a part of a long-term, loving lesbian relationship was one that she frequently came back to during the course of the interview. On top of relationships and religion, Sage also examined her experiences undergoing workplace harassment and feeling unwelcome and unsafe in many …

Mckenzie, Ellen, Caroline Wheeler, Marwa Ibrahim

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

This interview features Ellen McKenzie, an African-American lesbian woman living in Portland, Maine. Having lived in Portland for almost her entire life, Ellen can provide insight on growing up in one of the only black families in her community, the intersections between race and sexuality, co-parenting children from a spouse’s previous marriage and generally navigating the world and her career as a queer woman of color. Throughout this interview, we hear a lot about her childhood and her family’s history as civil rights activists in Maine, her relationship with her spouse and and co-parenting their children with both her spouse, …

Quezada, Alzenira, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Alzenira Quezada, also known as Lady Zen, is a queer artist, singer and performer. Quezada was born to Brazillian parents and raised by white adoptive parents who were members of the Church of the Nazarene, a branch of evangelical Christianity. She was cut off by her adoptive parents when she came out at 17. She studied music at Evergreen College in Washington State. She grew up in Arkansas and spent many years in Portland, Maine before moving to Mexico where she currently resides. Quezada owns a production company in Mexico and also works at a queer run bar. Her current …

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 …

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 …

Oral History Conversation With Najah Abdelkader, Evan Bui, Eric Hoster, Jesseca Bates

Philosophy 111: Philosophy of Human Nature

Najah Abdelkader, Professor of Philosophy at San Diego City College and Southwestern College, share stories and memories from her homeland of Iraq and her experiences of adapting to her new life in the US. This oral history conversation is part of an oral history project entitled "From Cradle to Cradle". In this project, students in a Philosophy of Human Nature course invites Iraqis and Syrians who have migrated to the US to share the stories and memories they have carried with them from their homelands and to explain how those stories and memories continue to shape and enrich the lives …

Mental Health Memories: A Web-Based Archive For Mental Health Stories, Amanda E. Castro

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Mental Health Memories project is an online archive created in order to display and preserve the personal histories of those with mental health experiences. The project aims to fill a void in available material culture related to the history of mental health and its preservation. Participants’ contributions include: oral histories, personal items, documents, and audio. Bringing together multimedia sources, the MHMemories website allows for the preservation of these items and stories through the digitization of contributions. This method allows for participants’ items to stay in their possession while also becoming part of the archive. In order to recruit participants, …

Moser, W. Jo, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

W. Jo Moser is a mother, photographer, political activist, and lesbian. She has experience working in childcare and is passionate about child welfare. Moser has a unique perspective as a lesbian parent being in a romantic long-term relationship with her partner of several decades. She sheds light on what living in San Francisco was like as a queer-identifying person in the 60s, 70s, and early-80s. There were experiences of social isolation she shared. This isolation was due to the fact that she did not always feel accepted in lesbian communities, but also felt that she had to prove herself to …

Mckenzie, Mike, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Mike McKenzie was born in 1971 and grew up in Scarborough Maine raised by his single mother. Mike knew he was gay in 1988 while still in high school where he witnessed and faced homophobia. This resulted in dropping out of school at the age of 16. At 17, Mike joined the Coast Guard and served from 1990 to 1991. As a very masculine gay man, he was generally well accepted by those he served with who knew he was gay but faced homophobia from a newcomer who outed Mike; this resulted in a discharge from the Coast Guard. Back …

Manson, Barry, Alanna Larivee, Emma Wynn Hill

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Barry Manson was born in Skowhegan, Maine in 1947. He grew up in Rumford and worked in his father’s grocery store from third grade to high school. Manson shares his story of being an out gay man since the age of 12 and the uncomfortable environment of living in a closed-minded community in Northeast Maine. He briefly attended college in Tampa, Florida then Ricker College in Houlton. While living in Connecticut, he began hitchhiking to New York City on a regular basis to enjoy the city’s theater scene and night life. He moved to New York where his love for …

Henderson, Susan, Emma Wynn Hill

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Susan Henderson is a gay woman living in Portland, Maine. She realized she was gay after attending a meeting of the Wilde Stein Club at the University of Maine in Orono. After leaving Orono, she worked at the Portland Social Security Office and stayed there for 36 yeasr. She helped to write a newsletter for the Maine Gay Task Force that turned into Mainly Gay Magazine, a magazine that reached people nationwide. On the Maine Gay Task Force she helped to put on the Gay Symposia that the group hosted for almost ten years. She came out in the 70s …

Barteaux, Kennedy, Kayla Woodward, Nathanial Koch

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Kennedy Barteaux is a 38 year old trans man who grew up in Norridgewock, Maine who knew from a young age that he was queer. He was outed to his parents as a lesbian at age 14 and was kicked out of the house and moved in with a supportive friend’s family in Skowhegan. He moved to Portland at age 18 and got involved with the Dyke March. Barteaux discusses his discomfort with existing gender expectations and stereotypes in both the gay and trans communities. He talks about community organizing and public speaking with and for the trans community (including …

Solomon, Howard, Richard Morin, Michelle Johnston

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Howard Solomon is a 76 year-old man who grew up in New Castle, Pennsylvania. During his early years, and still today, Judaism played a significant role in his life. His dad was a Kosher butcher, and Solomon attended a Hebrew school while growing up. Solomon’s profession was teaching history as a college professor at New York University, Tufts University, and the University of Southern Maine. Towards the end of his full-time teaching career, he taught a class about Lesbian and Gay History. During the same period, he openly discussed his homosexuality in the university context. He witnessed the AIDS epidemic …

Vermette, Jean, Annie Holland, Olivia Tryon-Nadeau

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Jean Vermette, born in 1954, is a transgender woman from Skowhegan, Maine. At the age of three, Jean knew that her biological sex did not match her gender identity. When Jean came out as transgender to her wife in the 1980s, her marriage soon dissolved. After Jean filed for divorce, she spent five years transitioning. In addition to working as a self-employed electrician, Jean has dedicated her adult life to advocating for Maine’s transgender community. She created the Maine Gender Resource and Support Service and spent over fifteen years speaking publicly to Maine college students and medical professionals about the …

Parsons, Betsy, Shanisa Rodriguez, Madison Leblanc

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Betsy Parsons grew up in a Midwestern town in the 1960s and 1970’s in a middle class educated family active in the local community. Her father and mother were both teachers. Her mother and father met in Orono, Maine in English class before migrating to the Midwest. Parsons describes developing a love a teaching from her parents; she knew from a young age that she wanted to become a teacher herself and began teaching at Portland High School in 1977. She describes herself as a ‘late bloomer’ in terms of her sexuality; she didn’t come out to herself until her …

Oral History Report: William Davis, Taylor M. Adams

World War II

This is an interview with William Davis who served in World War II. This article talks about his life during World War II.

Arbor, Kelly, Alanna Larrivee, Emma Wynn Hill

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Kelly Arbor, who identifies as genderqueer, was born in Rumford, Maine in 1977. Arbor is an artist, educator, and proud activist. They have been involved with activism throughout their life including in college at the University of Vermont. In this interview, Arbor talks about overcoming challenges growing up trans in a rural community, and discusses such issues as poverty, classism, LGBTQ representation, sex education in schools, incest, consent, AIDS, and substance abuse. Kelly Arbor also describes being involved in the Maine-based group MESH – Maine Educationalists on Sexual Harmony – a group working to create a dialogue surrounding sex positivity …

Making Oral History Interviews Accessible At The Louie B. Nunn Center For Oral History, Kopana Terry, Judy Sackett

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Vietnam Oral History - Michael Vest, Lindsey Clute

Vietnam

No abstract provided.

Jack Blanco: World War Ii Survivor, Rosalba Valera

World War II

Jack Blanco was born in Chicago in 1929 from immigrant parents Frederick Ross, from Austria, and Katherine Kiessling, from Germany. During the planning of the wedding, Jack Blanco’s father left his mother Katherine, she was already pregnant. Due to this circumstance, he was raised by his single mother, who worked in sweatshops and he was the only child growing up. He was left with various babysitters who he claims abused him during his mother’s absence. His life changed forever at the age of ten when he and his mother decided to visit his grandparents in Germany.

Jack Blanco’s experience during …

Oral History Project/ Margaret Jenkins, Cassia H. Reid Ms.

World War II

Margaret Jenkins was born in Humboldt, TN and spent most of her growing up years in Florence, Alabama and then moved to San Francisco when she was married. After the war, she lived in the town where the atomic bomb was tested, Oak Ridge, TN.

Although she does not have the experience most WWII veterans have, she still can share about her brother, husband, and father. Her husband and father served in the East Tennessee Valley Ordinance and her brother was in Iowa Jima and was also the great General MacArthur's secretary. We will also discussed her opinions and feelings …

Oral History/Richard Howard, Caleb Howard

Cold War

Oral History by Richard Howard, who was in the Air Force during the Cuban Missile Crisis.