Oral History

Doing Oral History Seminar

This 1000-level course serves as an introduction to the practice of oral history. Course readings expose students to major debates in the field as well as guidelines for conducting, transcribing, and preserving oral history interviews. Through reading, discussion, and fieldwork, we will implement our own oral history project. Because oral history serves not only to connect to and create historical records, but also to contribute to a larger social, cultural, and human understanding, we will disseminate the interviews not only through the University Archives but also via a public event at the semester’s end. Use image labeled 1326 photo.

Oral Sources in African History Seminar

Oral sources have maintained a central position within programs of recovering the African past. This upper-level course enables students to engage with the method of oral sources. We consider theoretical concerns about the use of oral testimony as historical evidence and practical and ethical issues of praxis. Students grapple with how historians use these sources to write about both historical elites and marginalized actors such as peasants, migrant workers, and women. Because oral history serves not only to connect to and create historical records, but also to contribute to a larger social, cultural, and human understanding, we undertake an oral history project of our own, designing an online site for dissemination of our own oral history interviews and supplementary materials. In my 2017 seminar, ten of our graduate and undergraduate students undertook archival research on the local anti-apartheid movement and did oral history interviews with DFW activists who sought to implement local sanctions against South Africa. Their interviews, biographies, and related essays and documents are available on the The Anti-Apartheid Movement in North Texas project page.

Voices of SMU Oral History Project

Outside of the classroom, Dr. Kelly mentors a team of student research assistants who conduct interviews with SMU alumni, faculty, and staff for the Voices of SMU project with the University Archives and nCDS of the SMU Libraries.