Institutional OH Programs: Re-thinking the Relationships with Their Communities
Time: 2025-09-18 12:00 - 14:00
Location: Large Hall B at Auditorium Maximum
Chairman: Stephen Sloan
Events within this Session
“Interviewing People Who Don’t Look Like Me”: Re-thinking Who We Interview (and Why)
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Abstract
In “‘Interviewing People Who Don’t Look Like Me’: Re-thinking Who We Interview (and Why),” Troy Reeves will offer an overview of his nearly two decades as the leader of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Oral History Program (OHP), located in the U.S. Midwest. This will include discussion on the relationship with the University Archives & UW-Madison’s Libraries leadership and the program’s collection strategies, as well as its outreach and collaboration efforts and initiatives. Reeves too will delve into the primary projects implemented during his time. The paper will then pivot to how Reeves’s leadership and oversight has helped to increase the diversity of the oral history collection. Both the successful projects, such as the Madison’s LGBTQ+ Community, and the less successful ones, such as African American Athletes at UW help tell the OHP’s story of re-thinking then transforming a collection of mainly, old white men–ie people who look like Reeves–into a richer, more-complex collection of anecdotes and stories about the campus’s history and culture. Throughout the paper, Reeves will augment his words with excerpts from the nearly 2,500 oral histories or 5,500 hours of audio, the OHP’s trove of interviews.
Speakers
“Meeting Them Where They Are”: Collaborations That Create Value for the Communities Being Interviewed
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Abstract
Over many years of practice, oral historians have gotten very good at collaborating with communities of various kinds to co-create interviews that are of great value to the programs, universities, and institutions we work for. We have the sense that when done well, these collaborations are also very valuable to the communities with whom we create them. Do we take too much for granted? For the past 20 years I have directed a university-based oral history program that frequently partners with community groups or institutions to co-create small oral history projects whose interviews are archived in our university special collections and online archive. Over that period I have developed assumptions, based almost entirely on anecdotal data, about the value my community partners must feel like they are receiving from our projects, but it occurred to me that I had not actually asked anyone to find out how they would describe that value in their own words. (A big no-no for oral historians!) In 2024 I decided to test those assumptions by revisiting representatives from one of our projects to find out whether or not my assumptions were at all accurate. In this paper I describe what I found and suggest ways that we might solicit feedback from community partners more systematically and incorporate those into our best practices. Todd Moye is the Fenton Wayne Robnett Professor of U.S. History at the University of North Texas, where he also directs the UNT Oral History Program. He is a past president of the Oral History Association and former secretary of IOHA.
Speakers
Too Much of a Good Thing? Using AI to Rescue a Community Oral History Project
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Abstract
The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky regularly collaborates with community partners ranging from the Bourbon (Whiskey) and Thoroughbred industries, public libraries and museums, as well as neighborhood and both large and small organizations. Recently the Nunn Center partnered with a national group that has conducted over 1,000 interviews in the past four years. In “Too Much of a Good Thing? Using AI to Rescue a Community Oral History Project,” Nunn Center director Doug Boyd will reflect on developing AI tools to assist with transcribing and creating comprehensive metadata for newly accessioned oral history interviews. In particular, Boyd will discuss the AI system he created called the SpeakEZ and how it is being applied to this particular interviewing initiative that was exceeding the Nunn Center’s un-funded capacity to e[ectively transcribe and e[ectively process such a large collection of oral history interviews.
Speakers
Going Local: Applying Oral History to Explore Counternarratives of Campus Communities
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Abstract
From the perspective of a public historian who is also a director of an academic oral history research program, “Going Local: Applying Oral History to Explore Counternarratives of Campus Communities” will offer a case study on engaging local groups with oral history projects and programming. Insights will be drawn on the ins and outs of this and the role that oral history can serve as an avenue of engagement for an institution. The presentation will also offer some cautionary tales drawn from my twenty-years of experience directing programs in Texas and in Mississippi. Generally, the value of oral history operates on three different levels — project, private, and public – and this presentation will use those frames to examine ways to work effectively and ethically.
Speakers
Learning from Our Neighbors: How Community Partnerships Can Challenge and Refine Our Oral History Practice
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 12:00 - 14:00
Abstract
As the director of the Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History (COPH), I have spent much of the last 16 years building relationships and partnerships with community organizations in Orange County, CA and beyond. Community organizations initiated some of these partnerships and COPH instigated others. These partners have been small neighborhood organizations, local museums, and large civic organizations. Not only has this community-based work had its benefits and challenges, but many of these projects have forced us to rethink our oral history practice as well as our preservation policies. This paper will focus on some of these key community partnerships and the ways they’ve inspired us to rethink what we do and how we do it. Central to these efforts has been respecting and protecting our narrators and the communities they represent.