Oral history is a structured practice of recording and preserving first hand life stories and information and making these primary sources available to others. This seminar covers the principles and practice of oral history, with a focus on the ethics of recording life stories for long-term preservation and public access. After an overview of how oral histories have been collected and disseminated, the seminar will focus on best practices for digital audio and video oral history recordings in both in-person and remote scenarios. Students will conduct and process one oral history interview and have the opportunity to engage with open-source digital oral history collections to review the challenges and opportunities of dissemination strategies such as exhibits, publications, and social media outputs.
