Oral History Commons^™

The Past As "Ahead": A Circular History Of Modern Chamorro Activism, Gabby Lupola

Pomona Senior Theses

This is not a traditional thesis of the Pomona College History Department. Spanning over a century from start to finish, this work tracks the history of Guam’s political status from 1898 to 2021. To support such a lengthy timeline, snapshots of key events and trends are recounted each chapter. Chapter 1 focuses on the Spanish-American War and the local struggle for acting governorship. Chapter 2 documents the impact of World War II, the Organic Act of Guam, modernization and early Chamorro activism on island. Chapter 3 depicts the evolution of late 20^th century Chamorro activism through a model of …

Whitewashed: A Look Into The Evolution Of Race Conversations In American Classrooms, Lily M. Walters

Senior Independent Study Theses

This paper seeks to follow the evolution of race conversations in the classroom through generations of people after the Civil War. My thesis is that curriculum excluded positive mentions of Black people after the Civil War until the Civil Rights Movement, when Black individuals crafted a more accurate and impartial curriculum. American curriculum’s exclusion of positive Black representation left white people unable to have positive race conversations in general. Additionally, through a case study of my family, I examine how generations of people shaped their ideas on race through conversations. The written portion of my IS begins with curriculum from …

Eric Warren Oral History Interview February 2021, Katrina Keller, P. Eric Warren

Oral Histories HIST300, Spring 2021

Midterm oral history interview with student Eric Warren.

Finding A Place For World War I In American History 1914-1918, Jennifer D. Keene

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"World War I has occupied an uneasy place in the American public and political consciousness.1 In the 1920s and 1930s, controversies over the war permeated the nation’s cultural and political life, influencing memorial culture and governmental policy. Interest in the war, however, waned considerably after World War II, a much larger and longer war for the United States. Despite a plethora of scholarly works examining nearly every aspect of the war, interest in the war remains limited even among academic historians. In many respects, World War I became the 'forgotten war' because Americans never developed a unifying collective memory about …

Interview With Herman K. Harris - Oh 070, Herman K. Harris

Winthrop University Oral History Program

Rev. Herman K. Harris II (1939-1988) discusses his family background, growing up in Heath Springs, SC, the Civil Rights movement in the south (Rock Hill in particular), the Freedom Riders, Friendship College, drugs, students in general and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Rev. Harris was involved in the movement from 1959 through 1964 and was arrested 33 times in the process. He participated in the Freedom Rides and was among those beaten in Anniston, Alabama. He attended Friendship College in Rock Hill, SC and graduated from Morris College in 1964. This interview took place on …

The Cobalt Oral History Project:Reflections On A Near-Century Of Archaeology, Glory Turnbull

Capstone Projects

The CoBALT (Coastal Bend Archaeological Logistics Team) Oral History Project is a series of interviews conducted by Glory Turnbull featuring CoBALT members Bill Birmingham, Ben McReynolds, Frank Condron, Jud Austin, and Rickey Ramseur. CoBALT is a group of citizen archaeologists that protect archaeological sites and excavate in the Coastal Bend of Texas, primarily in the town of Victoria. CoBALT’s history is previously unrecorded, but features heavily in these interviews, in addition to information about Coastal Bend archaeology from the 1950s to present. The members of CoBALT have excavated, surveyed, or collected at nearly all of the archaeological sites in Victoria …

The Grace And Leigh Oral History Project, Spencer Law

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

At a critical time in examining the bias of our institutions, the Grace and Leigh Oral History Project is collecting and archiving stories of three educational institutions in Richmond, Virginia. These oral history interviews share personal experiences with race and privilege in Richmond Public Schools, the experiment of the Virginia Governor's School initiative, and the legacy of Maggie Lena Walker. An accompanying contextual essay provides background on the author’s personal connection to the project, relevant historical information, and detailed plans for the future of the project. Currently, the project includes a total of 24 oral history interviews, roughly an hour …

'Seeds Of Happiness': An Oral History Of Members Of Soka Gakkai International-New Orleans, Lorvelis Amelia Madueño

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Soka Gakkai International (SGI) is a Japanese new religious movement present in 192 countries. Despite the substantial amount of academic work that has been produced on SGI’s overseas expansion, many scholars continue to overlook the local context when analyzing the organization’s global presence. This paper is based on oral history interviews and examines the experiences of five members of the SGI-USA New Orleans Buddhist Center, located in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. This thesis argues that many SGI practitioners choose to join and remain in the organization because it fills specific spiritual and emotional voids in their lives, creates …

“We Didn’T Have A Lot Of Money, We Worked Hard, And We Ate Beans”: Examining The Narrative Inheritance From An Appalachian Father To His Son, Thomas Townsend

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The author contends that narratives, shaped not only by events but also by socioeconomic and geographic factors, are narratives that require exploration and analysis because these narratives build the lives in which individuals exist. By understanding narratives passed down with which they have built their lives, individuals can come to greater understanding of the narratives in which they live. To understand the narratives, he created and continues to craft about his life, the author needed to understand his narrative inheritance. When a proposed thesis study imploded, the focus of the study shifted to exploring the circumstances of a single interview …

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 12: How Good Was Wallace's Memory?, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823−1913) continues to be criticized for inconsistencies in his recollections of the earlier events in his life. This criticism, while not entirely unjust, has nevertheless been overplayed. Critics have not attended to the general understanding that self-biography is under the influence of two aspects of memory: that pertaining to remembrance of the qualities of past situations, and a secondary ability to assign absolutes of name or date to such memories. All evidence suggests that Wallace’s memory in the first sense was excellent throughout his life, but that he was prone to lapses of the second type.

The Hong Kong Heritage Project: Preserving Corporate And Community History, Amelia L. Allsop

Journal of East Asian Libraries

The Hong Kong Heritage Project (HKHP), established by Sir Michael Kadoorie in 2007, is one of the first corporate archives to be founded in Hong Kong. It followed in the footsteps of HSBC’s Asia Pacific Archive which pioneered business archives in the city when opened in 2004. Today, more than a decade on, several more corporate archives have been established, although the total number of private archives in Hong Kong remains small.[1] In a city with no archival law - Hong Kong is one of the few jurisdictions in the world that has no archival legislation covering government records …

Defining Genocide In Northwestern California: The Devastation Of Humboldt And Del Norte County’S Indigenous Peoples, Gavin W. Rowley

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

In recent years, historians and the American public have increasingly debated whether or not the crimes that have been committed against Native Americans in the United States constitute genocide. Although the Humboldt and Del Norte region was conquered by Euro-Americans later than the rest of the US, genocidal crimes were prevalent within the counties of Humboldt and Del Norte in Northwestern California. The genocide committed against the Indigenous Peoples there were carried out by vigilante groups with the support of the California state government as well as the US federal government. I argue not only that genocide, as defined by …

Denying The Animosity: Understanding Narratives Of Harmony From The Nellie Massacre, 1983, Jabeen Yasmeen

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article tries to understand through oral narratives from the Nellie Massacre of 1983 to reflect on how societies in India adhere to a narrative of harmony between different communities and a familial structure before a conflict breaks out, denying the existence of any palpable enmity amongst the communities. It will see how and why the assertions of peaceful co-existence may differ in case of the majority and minority in India. While there may be genuine assertions of harmony, such assertions may also be based on different factors such as majority strength, fear of retaliation and the compulsions of co-existence.

Mccormick, Dale, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

In this interview, Dale McCormick discusses her early life in New York City and in Iowa City. She describes a college era lesbian relationship that, when discovered by her mother, led to several years of failed psychiatric conversion therapy. McCormick describes the vibrant second-wave feminist community in Iowa City of the 1960s and 1970s and the role anti-(Vietnam)war activism played in her life. She discusses in detail the process of becoming a union carpenter apprentice and the harassment she faced as the only woman on construction crews. With the publication of her book “Against the Grain, a Carpentry Manual for …

Caulfield, Christine, Wendy Chapkis

Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection

Christine Caulfield, a 64 year old trans woman, discusses growing up in a military family. She discusses the challenges of moving multiple times during the first 13 years of her life as a military dependent and reports that military culture in the 1960s and 70s was not welcoming to LGBTQ people. She knew she was ‘different’ from age 8, but had no language to express it. She was seriously bullied as a child and also experienced sexual abuse during those years by an Assistant Boy Scout Master. She discusses a suicide attempt she made during her first year of high …

Herb Mayer Interviewed By Irene Burgess And Bruce Gentry, Herb Mayer, Irene Burgess, Bruce Gentry, Stephanie Opperman

Collecting the Past

In this week’s special episode, Irene Burgess and Bruce Gentry interview Herb Mayer.

Contextual Note: Prior to this conversation, Herb Mayer attended a virtual discussion between Dr. Angela Alaimo O’Donnell and Fr. Mark Bosco about O’Donnell’s recently released book, Radical Ambivalence: Race in Flannery O’Connor, so there are frequent references to her work

Every Step A Novel: Historical Circumstances And Somali American Identity, Haden Griggs

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project is designed to help high school students learn about the experiences, history and identity of Somali men who came to Utah as refugees. It is organized around the oral histories of eight Somali men who live in the Salt Lake City area. They were collected by Haden Griggs in the latter half of 2019. Transcripts and audio recordings for all the interviews are available here.

A paper, analyzing the historical circumstances and variations on Somali identity, is included here for scholarly or instructor use. This project also includes a digital exhibit tracing recent Somali history and contextualizing the …

Documenting Latinx Communities: Podcasting And Oral History In The Time Of Covid-19, Nelson Santana

Publications and Research

Living through a worldwide pandemic is not easy. As of June 22, 2020, more than 8.8 million cases have been confirmed and more than 465,700 people have died from COVID-19. Oral narratives are powerful tools that for audiences paint a picture of that person’s perception of an event, especially since it is the narrative of the interviewee’s unique lived experience that is captured. This paper discusses the early stages of an oral history project that documents COVID-19 through the lens of Latinx communities.

Overview And Acknowledgments, Marc Roscoe Loustau

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Imaging The Great Irish Famine: Representing Dispossession In Visual Culture, Preface & Introduction, Niamh Ann Kelly

Books/Book Chapters

‘Niamh Ann Kelly's lavishly illustrated book throws new light on the visual culture commemorative of hunger, famine and dispossession in mid-nineteenth-century Ireland. Located within the discipline of International Memorial Studies, the text and images both challenge and extend our understanding of Famine history. Examining the visual culture since the time of the Famine until the present, Kelly asks, how do we view, experience and represent the past in the present? To what extent does the viewer insert themselves in this complex process? Is there such a thing as ethical spectatorship? Kelly’s sophisticated yet sympathetic study of the “grievous history” …

Nationalistic Massacre Victims Triumph Over Ccp, Nathan Huffine

Voces Novae

Following the Japanese invasion of mainland China, and the subsequent Nanjing Massacre in 1937, Chinese Massacre survivors gained a nationalistic perspective as a result of their lived experiences. Later, these survivors’ nationalistic perspective came in direct conflict with the class-based perspective held by the Chinese Communist Party. This clash in political views helps shed light upon much of the internal and external Chinese historical narrative throughout the mid to late twentieth century.

Ua37/2 Corona Paper, Ellen Micheletti

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

Paper written regarding Ellen Micheletti's experiences during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic.

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.

For My Children, Anonymous

Social and Racial Justice During the Pandemic

No abstract provided.

Making It Up As He Goes: Trump’S Improvisational Rhetoric And The Hyper-Rhetorical Presidency, Richard Holtzman

History and Social Sciences Faculty Journal Articles

Trump disregards the norms of presidential communication by regularly speaking or tweeting off-the-cuff with seemingly little forethought or editorial input. As White House administrations institutionalized presidential speechwriting and strategic communications over the past century, meticulously-crafted rhetoric became the norm. Trump’s improvisational rhetoric is the antithesis of the highly-professionalized, disciplined approach to political communication we have come to expect from the presidency. This essay takes the position that his reliance on improvisational rhetoric is more than a matter of communication; it is a matter of governance. Trump regularly uses improvised communication to make important policy decisions. In doing so, the president …

Desde La Periferia De La Milpa: Testimonios De Msm De Los Ranchos Y Los Pueblos De Southern Mexico (From The Periphery Of The Cornfield: Testimonies Of Msm From The Ranches And Towns Of Southern Mexico), Luis Esparza

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to celebrate and honor resistance strategies MSM have originally implemented, inherited, and recreated. I accomplished this using a pláticas[1] methodology (Fierros & Delgado-Bernal, 2016). This is a methodology that humanizes participants by treating their testimonials as legitimate knowledge (Fierros & Delgado-Bernal, 2016). Together, my contributors and I constructed a list of resistance strategies as they tied their experiences in relation to and against repressive colonial rhetoric that continues to be re-articulated in the rural.

[1] Talks

Fuitina: Love, Sex, And Rape In Modern Italy, 1945–Present, Antonella Vitale

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The term fuitina in Sicilian dialect is a word used to describe a form of abduction, and is a variation of the more formal Italian term fuga, meaning a flight or escape. Fuitina, was essentially a sanctioned bride theft. Often, after the abduction of a woman, the abductor would seek a reparatory or rehabilitating marriage that would restore the woman’s “honor” and absolve the man of bride theft. Until 1981, the Italian legal system supported the practice of fuitina and rarely prosecuted men who kidnapped and raped women under the guise of this tradition. The practice of fuitina and …

Paper House: The Revolution, The Disappeared, And The Historicity Of Lebanon, Elsa Saade

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis will be an attempt to reenact events in relation to the disappeared and the Lebanese civil war, with the help of newspaper cuts, oral history, theories on historical writing, memories, and books on Lebanon. As a prospective historian, the writer will be tapping into the internal event of thought processes and meaning of the past, as advised by R. G. Collingwood in The Idea of History. (Collingwood, 1946 ) That critical inquiry will only be at the service of understanding the present from the lens of a self-reflecting inquisitor that has faced many silences in a past …

Stealin' The Meetin': Black Education History & The Black Panthers' Oakland Community School, Robert P. Robinson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation frames the Black Panthers' Oakland Community School (OCS) as a convergence of Black self-determination/Black Power, Black education history, and curriculum studies. Drawing from widely-cited archives, rarely-cited archives, oral history, periodicals, and secondary source material, the proposed study extends the OCS narrative by tracing its curricular trajectory and highlighting the voices of students, parents, and staff. It considers how the school’s history provides examples of educational practices—such as restorative justice and culturally relevant pedagogy—that would not become named or popularized in mainstream education until much later, asserting that histories of this sort can inform educational endeavors in the present. …

Kicking & Streaming! Enhancing Digitally-Born Oral History Collections In Digital Commons, Autumn Johnson

Digital Commons Southeastern User Group Meeting (2020) (Archived)

Oral history collections pose unique challenges for archival institutions. Making these important histories available to researchers is often impeded by complex issues of access, privacy rights, and media obsolescence. These challenges are magnified when histories are digitally-born. Not only do they face the same issues as their analog counterparts, but digital materials have their own unique preservation and access issues with which archivists are still struggling to identify best practices. Digital Commons offers archivists a platform for sharing digitally-born oral histories that mitigate many of these complex issues. Not only does the platform allow for the consolidation of files from …