Special Topics: Research Methods in Geosciences
The Theory and Practice of Oral History

Last update: 12 November 2004

This two-credit research seminar comprises a combination of research, fieldwork, and an introduction to the literature of oral history. In addition to weekly discussions and readings, participants will complete a short oral history interview (accompanied by a legal release), prepare transcripts of no more than ten pages, and critique these interviews as well as those by seminar colleagues. Seminar readings are intended to complement fieldwork experience. This seminar is intended for Geosciences graduate students wishing to employ oral history in research projects intended to address secular changes over time, as well as humanities graduate students (particularly those in the History of Science) who wish to incorporate oral history into their research methodology.

Books

Portelli, Alesandro. The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories. 1991.

Perks, Robert and Alistair Thomson, eds. The Oral History Reader. 1998.

Both books (in paperback; used copies in stock) are available at the Memorial Union bookstore.

Articles and Chapters

The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research. 1979. [on-line]

Benison, Saul. "Reflections on Oral History." American Archivist 28 (January 1965): 71-77.

de Chadarevian, Soraya, "Using Interviews to Write the History of Science," in Thomas Söderqvist, ed., The Historiography of Contemporary Science and Technology (Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Press, 1997): 51-70.

Doel, Ronald E. "Oral History of American Science: A Forty Year Review," History of Science 41 (2003), 349-378.

DeVorkin, David. "Interviewing Physicists and Astronomers: Methods of Oral History," in John Roche, ed., Physicists Look Back: Studies in the History of Physics (London: Adam Hilger, 1990): 44-65.

Grele, Ronald G. "Can Anyone over Thirty be Trusted? A Friendly Critique of Oral History." In Grele, Envelopes of Sound: The Art of Oral History [Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged] (New York: Praeger, 1991): 196-211.

Grele, Ronald G. "Riffs and Improvisations: An Interview with Studs Terkel." In Grele, Envelopes of Sound: The Art of Oral History [Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged] (New York: Praeger, 1991): 10-49

McMahan, Eva. "The Oral History Interview as Interpretive Communicative Event," in McMahan, Elite Oral History Discourse: A Study in Cooperation and Coherence (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1989), pp. 1-23.

Morrissey, Charles T. "The Two Sentence Format as Interviewing Technique in Oral History Fieldwork." Oral History Review (Spring 1987): 43-54.

Principles and Standards of the Oral History Association. [On-line at http://omega.dickinson.edu/organizations/oha/pub_eg.html ] [revised, 2000 and subsequent]

Weart, Spencer R. and David H. DeVorkin, "Interviews as Sources for History of Modern Astrophysics." Isis 72, no. 263 (1981): 471-476.

Weiner, Charles. "Oral History of Science: A Mushrooming Cloud?" Journal of American History 75, 2 (1988): 548-559.

Copies of these readings will be placed in the graduate student mailbox room [History]. Individual copies will be distributed to seminar participants whenever possible.

Class Schedule:

Week 1 (week of March 29): Introduction: The History of Oral History

Reading:

Principles and Standards of the Oral History Association [Reserve and online]

The Belmont Report [Reserve and online] ¤Sept. 2003 letter from Office for Human Research Protection (Department of Health and Human Services), declaring that oral history interviews do not produce 'generalizable knowledge' and hence ought be exempt from Institutional Research Board oversight. Further information appears here.

Week 2 (week of April 5): An Introduction to Fieldwork

Assignment: select a transcribed oral history interview and prepare a brief critique of its content, scope, and overall effectiveness.

Sample transcripts will be available for checkout in the Graduate Student Reading Room, second floor, Wilkinson Hall; Graduate Mailbox Room, Department of History, 306 Milam Hall; and from Reserves / Circulation at Valley Library in the seminar binder. Other interviews may be consulted at the Oregon State University Archives, 3rd Floor, Valley Library [open hours 9 AM - 5 PM]

Readings:

Thompson, "The Voice of the Past: Oral History" [Perks and Thomson, Ch. 2]

Grele, "Movement without Aim: Methodological and Theoretical Problems in Oral History" [Perks and Thomson, Ch. 4]

Weiner, "Oral History of Science: A Mushrooming Cloud?" [Reserve]

Weart and DeVorkin, "Interviews as Sources for Modern Astrophysics" [Reserves]

Week 3 (week of April 12): Oral History Theory and Method

Readings:

Portelli, Chapters 1 and 3

Morrissey, "The Two Sentence Format as Interviewing Technique in Oral History Fieldwork" [Reserves]

DeVorkin, "Interviewing Physicists and Astronomers: Methods of Oral History" [Reserves]

Week 4 (week of April 19): The Interview Relationship

Readings:

Portelli, Chapter 2

Morrissey, "On Oral History Interviewing" [Perks and Thomson, Ch. 10]

McMahan, "The Oral History Interview as Interpretive Communicative Event" [Reserve]

Grele, "Can Anyone over Thirty be Trusted? A Friendly Critique of Oral History" [Reserve]

Week 5 (week of April 26): Oral History in the History of Science and in Reconstructing Historical Landscapes

Readings:

de Chadarevian, "Using Interviews to Write the History of Science" [Reserve]

Doel, "Oral History of American Science: A Forty Year Review" [Download] [Errata]

--additional reading to be added for this week, as soon as possible

Week 6 (week of May 3): Issues in Dialogic Interviews

Readings:

Portelli,Chapter 4

Anderson and Jack, "Learning to Listen: Interview Techniques and Analysis [Perks and Thomson, Ch. 14]

Sangster, "Telling our Stories: Feminist Debates and the Use of Oral History" [Perks and Thomson, Ch. 8]

Grele, "Riffs and Improvisations: An Interview with Studs Terkel" [Reserve]

Week 7 (week of May 10): Interpretation and Representation in Oral History

Readings:

Benison, "Reflections on Oral History" [Reserve]

Sherbakova, "The Gulag in Memory" [Perks and Thomson, Ch. 20]

Frisch, "Oral History and Hard Times:: A Review Essay" [Perks and Thomson, Ch. 3]

White, "Marking Absences: Holocaust Testimony and History" [Perks and Thomson, Ch. 15]

Week 8 (week of May 17): Memory and Evidence

Readings:

Portelli, Chapter 10

Lummis, "Structure and Validity in Oral Evidence" [Perk and Thomson, Ch. 23]

Borland, "'That's Not What I Said': Interpretive Conflict in Oral Narrative Research" [Perks and Thomson, Ch.27]

Thomson, "Anzac Memories: Putting Popular Memory Theory into Practice in Australia" [Perks and Thomson, Ch. 25]

Week 9 (week of May 24): Discussion of interviews secured this term

Week 10 (week of May 31): Further discussion of interviews secured this term, if needed

On-Line Resources for Oral History Ethical Principles and Guidelines Principles and Standards of the Oral History Association [revised version, 2000] The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research [The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, 1979] Ethical Principles from the Belmont Report Do oral history interviews fall under Institutional Review Board jurisdiction? From the American Institute of Physics: Center for History of Physics International Catalog of Sources [including oral history interviews; a searchable catalog] Oral Histories: (back to top) About our Oral History collection Conducting an interview Question list to guide you through your interview Permission form for obtaining permission to do the interview Our Catalog of Sources include interviews Related Courses on Methodology in Oral History Oral History Methodology and Theory (Louisiana State University) American Lives, American History: Oral History and the Understanding of Social Change (University of California, Berkeley) The Practice of Public History (Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis) more links to come! Landscape History through Oral History Writing Environmental and Park Histories Forest History Society Oral History Program [includes a tool to Search the Oral History Guide] Reconstructing the Nineteenth Century Landscape Using the Public Land Survey Fenland Oral History Project (Cambridge University) Big Bend National Park [Texas] Oral History Project The Ecology of the Tuggerah Lakes [Australia]: An Oral History (1998) Oral History in the National Park Service (as well as History and Landscape Architecture in the National Park Service, U.S.) A list-in-progress. More links to be added! Online Collections of Oral History Interviews Oral History Online [a fee-for-access service] University of California Berkeley: Oral History Online! Oral History Centers and Collections Other Helpful Links [courtesy in part to Michael A. Gordon]: What is Oral History? [History Matters / Making Sense of Evidence] (George Mason University) The Audio Dimensions of History: A Bibliography and Guide to Audio and Textual Resources on Historical Radio Documentary Production and Related Topics (State University of New York at Albany) Oral History Research Office, Columbia University Chemical Heritage Center Oral History Program Oral History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Oral History at the California Institute of Technology Oral History Association Center for History and New Media Southern Oral History Program University of Connecticut Center for Oral History Oral History Review Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University Holocaust Memorial Musem Oral History Program Institute of American Indian Studies John F. Kennedy Library Oral History Project Oral History on Space, Science and Technology, The National Air and Space  Museum Oral History Program, Utah State University Oral History Project, University of Alaska Oral History Research Center, Indiana University Regional History Project, University of California, Santa Cruz Regional Oral History Office, University of California, Berkeley Smithsonian Oral History Collection Will the Circle be Unbroken: Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement, Southern Regional Council Oral History Discussion List             H-Oralhist is the oral history discussion list. To subscribe to                the H-Oralhist send a message to: listserv@h-net.msu.edu                with no subject and with the following text:                SUBSCRIBE H-ORALHIST firstname lastname affiliation