FranaWiki:Community Portal

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Collaboratory Leadership

  • Phil Frana -- Oral History Methods
  • Amanda Allen -- Administration, Grantmaking, Professional Practice
  • Eric Deitz -- Video Production

Class Syllabus: Oral History and Digital Video Production (Spring 2007)

  • Instructors: Phil Frana, Amanda Allen, Eric Deitz
  • Class Meets: New Hall Classroom, MWF 9-10 AM
  • Office Hours: Drop-ins and appointments by phone or email are always welcome. Find Phil at 301B McAlister Hall. Email Phil at pfrana@uca.edu. His HCOL username is Phil. Call his (501)450-3198. Amanda Allen may be contacted at Amanda@ucahonors.org.

Course Description

Want to do something hands-on next semester? Make history by listening to the stories people tell? Learn the theory and practice of oral history. This course is divided into several overlapping areas of study: basic ethnographic fieldwork and historical analysis; approaches to memory; instructional and interpretive strategies; interviewing, editing, and documenting; folk study; archives and documentation; public uses; oral history and new digital media; and the new oral history of commerce and technology.

In addition to an individual project of your choice, you will participate in the Clinton Presidential Center Oral History Project. How exactly did the Clinton Library come to Little Rock? Who contributed to the effort and what controversies did they face? How were the architects selected? What’s the relationship between the Clinton Library, the School of Public Service, and the Foundation? What difference has the Library made in the lives of musicians and artists? How has it transformed Downtown Little Rock and the economy of Central Arkansas generally? Come find out. Class meets in the New Hall ethnography lab, with occasional forays to Little Rock.

Assigned Readings

  • Donald A. Ritchie, Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide, 2nd ed., Oxford, 2003 (paper).
  • Thomas L. Charlton, Lois E. Myers, and Rebecca Sharpless, eds., History of Oral History: Foundations and Methodology, AltaMira, 2007 (paper).
  • Video Production

Aims, Outcomes, and Assessment

This is a collaboratory practicing oral history methods, including basic ethnographic and historical principles; approaches to memory; instructional and interpretive strategies; interviewing editing, and documenting; folk study; public uses; and cybermedia. This course focuses on the collection and analysis of oral narratives as evidence of the past. In addition to completing our work, we will examine both practical and theoretical material regarding the challenges and possibilities of oral history. Our aim is to study oral narrative and oral history in several contexts for use by scholars in many disciplines. The course’s central theme is the representation of democratic beliefs as applied to oral history in contemporary Little Rock.

In addition to reading assignments and discussion, you will produce for this class research-grade oral histories with associated notes and appendices and -- as a group project -- make significant contributions to the Clinton Presidential Center & Downtown Little Rock Memory Project. You cannot pass this course without submitting all assignments. The breakdown in assigning a final grade will be determined as follows: discussion (25%), oral history preparation (25%), group project (25%), and final presentation (25%).

Assignments

Individual Project: You will conduct an interview of approximately two hours with a suitable interviewee. This interview will be recorded, transcribed, and edited as if it were to be published. Each student will select an appropriate field, collect research and field notes, compose a basic chronology and set of research questions, and annotate relevant supporting documents. Students will also compose a short (2-3 page, double spaced) retrospective analysis of their experience and an analysis of the relation of individual stories to larger case studies found in the research literature (3-4 pages) and/or to larger issues found in the history survey. All projects will be approved in consultation with the instructors.

Group Project:

Grant Proposal: Write a grant proposal, design and begin constructing a mobile memory booth for the Hundredth Anniversary of the University of Central Arkansas. The booth will be used to conduct broadcast-quality oral-history interviews with the guidance of a trained facilitator. The booth will celebrate our shared humanity and collective identity. It will capture and define the stories that bond us. The process of interviewing UCA alums might have a profound impact on both the interviewer and interviewee, as well as on the larger institution. Final Presentation: Your final presentation will be delivered as an audio or video podcast, or as a radio interview on KCON 1230 AM or KUCA 91.3 FM. All final presentations will be produced with MP3 or MPEG-4 editing software.

Grading, Attendance

Three or more unexcused absences will automatically result in a lowered grade. Missing a class in which you are the assigned leader will also result in a lowered grade. Grading scale:

Potential realized

A – Superior contributions befitting the caliber of a UCA Honors scholar.

Potential not yet realized

B – Contributions acceptable, but lacking clarity, consistency, or continuity. Contributions brief; class attendance less than stellar. C – Fails in commitment to make acceptable contributions in one or more areas. D – Fails in commitment to make contributions in many or nearly all areas. F – Systematically fails to attend, share ideas, read, or write.

Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism is defined here as the “stealing of passages either word for word or in substance, from the writings of another and publishing them as one’s own.” You are plagiarizing when you present an idea or interpretation that you did not originate without acknowledgment. You are plagiarizing when you copy and incorporate someone else’s work into your own without setting it off with quotation marks and identifying the source. You are also plagiarizing when you borrow from someone else’s work and simply change a few words before adding it to your own work. Plagiarism is a serious violation of academic ethics and constitutes grounds for disciplinary action (refer to your UCA Student Handbook in this regard).

Other Student Conduct

Note also the general standards for student conduct, including the university’s sexual harassment policy, in your current student handbook. The University of Central Arkansas adheres to the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you need an accommodation under this Act due to a disability, please contact the UCA Office of Disability Services, (501)450-3135.

Class Schedule/Topics

• What is Oral History? • Oral History Projects and Collections • What is Ethnography? • Ethnography Projects and Collections • Alli Hogue’s Traveler’s Project • Ethics & Sponsored Projects Office • Release Forms/Ownership • Photography • Videography • Video Editing Software • Care of Ethnography Lab & Equipment • Paying for OH: Grants and Proposals for Clinton project/Arkansas Heritage Council/SURF • Knowledge Database: FranaWiki • Creating/Editing Wikis • Transcription/Processing Transcripts/Footnoting/Archiving • Sources/Background Research • Interviewer’s Field Notes • Life History Forms • Public Relations/Correspondence/Professionalism • Compiling Interview Topics & Questions • Practice Interviewing on Each Other • Personal Project • Clinton Project • Practice Interviewing on Doctor/Final Exam • Oral History Documentaries/Musicals/Websites/Radio/Interpretive Skits • UCA Folklore Collection (Jimmy Bryant) • Oral History in Scholarly Work • Visiting the Library & Heifer HQ/Doe’s Eat Place • Interviewing Style/Silence/Location/Active Listening • Gathering Artifacts/Manuscript Material from Interviewee • Criticisms of Oral History/Memory/Intersubjectivity/Presentism/Usable Pasts/Mythmaking • Interviewing Elites/Ordinary People • Improving your methods/Reflecting on Interviews Conducted/Retrospective essay • Types of Interviewing Products: Transcripts, Audio, Video • Impact of Oral History on the Community • Curriculum Development • Assignment Read and Critique a Past Oral History: Clinton Project, Rick Scott, Women’s Abuse • Visit by Skip Rutherford or Jose Guzzardi or Amanda Harris?

Oral History Journals & Organizations

Oral History Review—Oral History Association The Public Historian—National Council on Public History OHAM Newsletter—Oral History Association of Minnesota Journal of American Folklore—American Folklore Society Journal for MultiMedia History—http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/ History News—American Association for State and Local History H-Net Discussion Networks: H-Local (Local History), H-Oralhist (Oral History), H-PCAACA (Popular Culture), H-Public (Public History) Oral History Association Electronic Listserv: http://library.ucsc.edu/reg-hist/ohalist.html

Oral History Bibliography

Fieldwork

  • James Clifford, “Partial Truths,” in Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, eds. James Clifford and George E. Marcus, University of California Press, 1990.
  • Robert Darnton, “Writing News and Telling Stories,” Daedalus 104 (Spring 1975): 175-94.
  • Micaela Di Leonardo, "Oral History as Ethnographic Encounter," Oral History Review 15 (1987): 1-20.
  • Ronald J. Grele, "Listen to Their Voices: Two Case Studies in the Interpretation of Oral History Interviews," in Envelopes of Sound,pp. 212-41.
  • Mary Louise Pratt, “Fieldwork in Common Places,” in Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, eds. James Clifford and George E. Marcus, University of California Press, 1990.
  • Carl Wilmsen, "For the Record: Editing and the Production of Meaning in Oral History," Oral History Review 28 (Winter-Spring 2001): 65-86.
  • Valerie Yow, "'Do I Like Them Too Much?': Effects of the Oral History Interview on the Interviewer and Vice-Versa," Oral History Review 24 (Summer 1997): 55-79.

Museums

  • Anna Green, "Returning History to the Community: Oral History in a Museum Setting," Oral History Review 24 (Winter 1997): 53-72.

Education

  • Lynne Hamer, "Oralized History: History Teachers as Oral History Tellers," Oral History Review 27 (Summer-Fall 2000): 19-40.
  • Grace Huerta and Leslie Flemmer, "Using Student-Generated Oral History Research in the Secondary Classroom," Clearing House 74 (2000): 105-10.
  • Barry A. Lanman and George L. Mehaffy, Oral History in the Secondary School Classroom, Oral History Association, 1989.
  • Charles R. Lee and Kathryn L. Nasstrom, eds. "Practice and Pedagogy: Oral History in the Classroom," Oral History Review 25 (Summer-Fall 1998): entire issue, 1-117.
  • N.C. Marchart, "Doing Oral History in the Elementary Grades," Social Education 43 (1979): 479-80.
  • G.L. Mehaffy, "Oral History in Elementary Classrooms," Social Education 48 (1984): 470-2.
  • Fay D. Metcalf and Matthew T. Downey, Using Local History in the Classroom, American Association for State and Local History, 1982.
  • Laurie Mercier and Madeline Buckendorf, Using Oral History in Community History Projects, Oral History Association, 1992.
  • David L. Moore, "Between Cultures: Oral History of Hmong Teenagers in Minneapolis," Vietnam Generation 2 (1990): 38-52.
  • Charles T. Morrissey, "Oral History Interviews: Does Age Make a Difference?" Oral History Association Newsletter 35 (Fall 2001): 11.
  • John Neuenschwander, "Oral History in the High School Classroom," Oral History Review 3 (1975): 59-61.
  • Irma M. Olmedo, "Junior Historians: Doing Oral History with ESL and Bilingual Students," TESOL Journal (Summer 1993).
  • A. Sears, "Enriching Social Studies with Interviews," History and Social Science Teacher 25 (1990): 67-71.
  • Thad Sitton, et al., Oral History: A Guide for Teachers and Others, University of Texas Press, 1983.
  • Margaret Sullivan, "Into Community Classrooms: Another Use for Oral History," Oral History Review 2 (1974): 52-8.
  • Eliot Wigginton, "Foxfire Grows Up," Harvard Educational Review 59 (February 1989): 24-49.

Business & Technology Studies

  • John Bodnar, "Power and Memory in Oral History: Workers and Managers at Studebaker," Journal of American History 75 (1989): 1201-21.
  • Thomas Dublin, "Gender and Economic Decline: The Pennsylvania Anthracite Region, 1920-1970," Oral History Review 27 (Winter-Spring 2000): 81-98.
  • Andrew J. Dunar and Dennis McBride, Building Hoover Dam: An Oral History of the Great Depression, University of Nevada Press, 2001.
  • Laurie Graham, On the Line at Subaru-Isuzu: The Japanese Model and the American Worker, Cornell University Press, 1995.
  • Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World, University of North Carolina Press, 1987.
  • Michael Hoberman, "High Crimes and Fallen Factories: Nostalgic Utopianism in an Eclipsed New England Industrial Town," Oral History Review 28 (Winter-Spring 2001): 17-40.
  • Roger Horowitz and Rick Halpern, "Work, Race, and Identity: Self-Representation in the Narratives of Black Packinghouse Workers," Oral History Review 26 (Winter-Spring 1999): 23-43.
  • Thomas E. Leary and Elizabeth C. Sholes, From Fire to Rust: Business, Technology, and Work at the Lackawanna Steel Plant, 1899-1983, Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 1987.
  • Katrina Mason, Children of Los Alamos: An Oral History of the Town Where the Atomic Age Began, Twayne Publishers, 1995.

Rural Studies

  • Michael A. Gordon, "Oral Documentation and the Sustainable Agriculture Movement in Wisconsin," Public Historian 11 (Fall 1989): 83-98.
  • Lu Ann Jones and Nancy Grey Osterud, "'If I Must Say So Myself': Oral Histories of Rural Women," Oral History Review 17 (Fall 1989): 1-23.
  • Melissa Walker, "Calling the Men Out from the Boys: Concepts of Success in the Recollections of a Southern Farmer," Oral History Review 27 (Summer-Fall 2000): 1-18.

Memory

  • John Bodnar, "Generational Memory in an American Town," Journal of Interdisciplinary History 26 (1996): 619-37.
  • John Neuenschwander, "Remembrance of Things Past: Oral Historians and Long-Term Memory," Oral History Review 6 (1978): 45-53.

Law

  • Joseph Romney, "Legal Considerations in Oral History," Oral History Review 1 (1973): 66-76.
  • John Neuenschwander, "Oral History and the Law: An Update," Oral History Association Newsletter 31 (Winter 1997): 4-6.

Selected Oral History Websites

Other Mediawiki Memory Projects

Useful Project Sources

Class Wiki

Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.

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