Voices of the Past

Student-Made Oral Histories

• The Class
• The Project
• Oral Histories
• About

Conducting Oral Histories

The goal of this project was to conduct two interviews conducted by the students and put them into a larger historical context.

Some suggested interview subjects included:

• - Family members
• - People in the local region, or in the student’s hometown, with personal experiences of a historical period and/ or topic of interest to the student

Before conducting interviews, students had to collect both primary sources, such as old newspapers, and secondary sources, such as scholarly books and articles on the history of the topic, in order to enter the interview well-informed and prepared for any improvised or unplanned parts of the interview.

Students had three options for the final academic piece of this project:

• - A final paper which used the interviewees’ comments, along with the outside research, as evidence for an argument the student made about his or her chosen historical topic
• - A prospectus for a documentary, photographic essay, or website that utilized the oral histories and explained their historical context
• - A blog that utilized the oral histories and put them in historical context

The two interviews, along with signed release forms, were placed in Clarkson’s library, so that future scholars could take advantage of the new primary sources that students created.

Read and listen to the students' oral histories here!

Created by Emily Baker with materials provided by students from the class, "Voices of the Past"

Interviewees & interviewers signed release forms, allowing interviews to be placed on the web.