The 2010 Wisconsin Oral History Day will be held in Milwaukee on March 28 & 29, 2010. March 28th will be an afternoon (1:30-3:30 pm) event at the Jewish Museum Milwaukee, with a presentation by UW--Madison Humanities Scholar & Madison Area Technical College professor Jonathan Pollack. March 29th will be a full-day of events at the UW--Milwaukee Golda Meir Library, keynoted by Associate Professor of History & Public History, J. Todd Moye of University of North Texas.
Initial sponsors: UW--Milwaukee Libraries, UW--Madison Libraries, Jewish Museum Milwaukee, and UW--Milwaukee History Department, Public History Specialization
More news on this event to come as the days and months pass.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
UW—Madison Campus Voices: Past (Present & Future?)
To accompany the recent posting and success of U.S. Forest Products Lab (FPL) Centennial Oral History Project—a joint project between the UW—Madison Oral History Program (OHP) and the UW Digital Collections Center (DCC)—the two groups have joined forces again to put the first nine interviews from the OHP’s general oral history collection onto the DCC’s website. Under the project title, UW—Madison Campus Voices, the full audio interviews with the following OHP narrators, Kathryn Clarenbach, E. David Cronon (by himself and with John Jenkins), Donald Downs, Mark Ingraham, Cora Lee Kluge, Jack Mitchell, George Mosse, and William Sewell, can be accessed from any computer with internet access.
If interested in reviewing the FPL project, go to http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/FPLHist/. And if interested in seeing the Campus Voices’ content, go to http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/UW/subcollections/UWCampusVoicesAbout.html. Neither project could have happened without the efforts of OHP and DCC staffers, whose time, effort, and insight made these presentations possible.
Both of these web presentations (FPL & Campus Voices) serve as the beginning of a “beautiful friendship” between the OHP & DCC. Extant transcripts to the nine Voices interviews and sound & extant transcripts from the 1970s TAA Strike oral history project will be published to the DCC’s site in the near future.
As recordings from these project in particular and from most all interviews in general, the strength of oral history lies in people telling their stories. Those familiar with StoryCorps, know from listening to excerpts of interviews on National Public Radio that hearing someone tell their story can be greatly moving, and in many cases can have more impact than a typed rendition.
One of the continuing challenges of an oral history program is to give people easier access to the rich stories that have been collected over time.
The method of providing access to oral history needs to change to accommodate the requirements of today’s users. The key is to present the sometimes poignant stories, strong opinions, and heartfelt memories from the collection in short segments (snippets), and to offer these snippets in a technological format that allows for easier access. When users come across a story that peaks their interest, they can look to the content providers, such as the UW–Madison Archives, home of the OHP, or the DCC, to get into the story or subject in more depth.
In the next few months, the OHP & DCC, as well as other interested UW—Madison Libraries & campus folks, intend to move this discussion from conception to reality. So, look for more details on this idea in the future.
If interested in reviewing the FPL project, go to http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/FPLHist/. And if interested in seeing the Campus Voices’ content, go to http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/UW/subcollections/UWCampusVoicesAbout.html. Neither project could have happened without the efforts of OHP and DCC staffers, whose time, effort, and insight made these presentations possible.
Both of these web presentations (FPL & Campus Voices) serve as the beginning of a “beautiful friendship” between the OHP & DCC. Extant transcripts to the nine Voices interviews and sound & extant transcripts from the 1970s TAA Strike oral history project will be published to the DCC’s site in the near future.
As recordings from these project in particular and from most all interviews in general, the strength of oral history lies in people telling their stories. Those familiar with StoryCorps, know from listening to excerpts of interviews on National Public Radio that hearing someone tell their story can be greatly moving, and in many cases can have more impact than a typed rendition.
One of the continuing challenges of an oral history program is to give people easier access to the rich stories that have been collected over time.
The method of providing access to oral history needs to change to accommodate the requirements of today’s users. The key is to present the sometimes poignant stories, strong opinions, and heartfelt memories from the collection in short segments (snippets), and to offer these snippets in a technological format that allows for easier access. When users come across a story that peaks their interest, they can look to the content providers, such as the UW–Madison Archives, home of the OHP, or the DCC, to get into the story or subject in more depth.
In the next few months, the OHP & DCC, as well as other interested UW—Madison Libraries & campus folks, intend to move this discussion from conception to reality. So, look for more details on this idea in the future.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Women at UW in Science and Engineering: An Insider’s View of an Oral History Project
Submitted by Laura Balzano, graduate student in Electrical Engineering at the UW—Madison and volunteer at the UW—Madison Oral History Program.
As a woman in engineering, I have met people with various attitudes about the changes women bring to a traditionally male discipline. The different perspectives on this issue are brought by people young and old, male and female, and with various types of personalities that may or may not be typical among those who choose to pursue work in science and technology.
I still remember the first time I was ever asked about what it is like to be a woman in a male-dominated discipline. I honestly hadn't been aware of it until then. Immediately I thought of my main engineering class of about 75 students, and I realized that I could name all 8 female students and even point out exactly where they sat in the classroom.
Since then, in many discussions with my female colleagues, we try our best to embrace diverse perspectives and to carve out our own place in the discipline. The difficulty here is that integrating oneself becomes a personalized and anecdotal issue. Every woman I have met in math, physics, and engineering tells stories where they were clearly treated badly because they were women, stories where the discrimination is less clear, and stories where they misinterpreted well-intentioned behaviors of others. Each of these stories has its own context, its own characters, its own resolution. Because of the few women in the field in the first place, each story is so different that it is hard for us to piece together what general conclusions may help us in our career.
I and other women I've met just can't get enough of these stories. We want to hear how things went down, how people handled the situation, what words exactly were exchanged, which transgressions were ignored by colleagues, and which ones were finally acknowledged. We want to know how other women dealt with the separation of emotions and work, the balance of family and tenure, and the consolidation of a desire to make a difference and a need to support oneself financially.
--------------------------------------------
At some point I began to wonder how we could make more women's stories accessible to a larger audience, since it didn't seem that we should wait around for an increased number of women to serve as mentors and to create the oral tradition we craved.
It was at this point that I decided I wanted to do recorded interviews of women in engineering. How hard can it be? All I need is a mic and a recorder, right? Well I applied for a WISELI yearly grant for money, and instead they suggested instead I start by volunteering with the oral history group on campus.
I started by meeting with Troy Reeves, head of the program, and once I read A Field Notebook for Oral History, I was glad that I had not jumped in head first.
At the UW-Madison Oral History Program, there is an interview series dedicated to women who spent time at the UW in science, math and engineering. This is truly a collection of gems for female graduate students and young faculty—an opportunity to hear about the experiences of their colleagues in various disciplines. I have spoken with older female faculty, and they reminded me that they had few or no mentors. An archive of stories would enlighten even these experienced women professors as to what changes are really happening in the attitudes of their colleagues over time.
My first interest was to listen to the interviews that the oral history program already had in this special series called Women at UW in Science and Engineering. While I listened to interviews, I digitized them as well to earn my keep. I heard stories of women who had earned tenure and women who had been denied it. I heard of women who never had children and women who did at various times in their career. Also, I heard of women who had very supportive spouses with flexible career ambitions.
Some women came to the UW because it was really a great opportunity for them, others came as a compromise with their spouses, and still others came as a temporary option on their way to build a career and ended up staying. The women in the interviews I heard were from the departments of electrical engineering, mathematics, biology, medicine, agriculture, and zoology. This kind of vast diversity is exactly what I craved—a window into the wisdom that comes with experience, something that is difficult to find when I have gotten to know only three female professors in the nearly ten years I have spent at institutions of higher education.
------------------------------------------
This past summer I did my first oral history interview with a female engineering professor. I think of myself as a friendly, warm person who loves stories and is especially passionate about stories of women in science and engineering. What else could an interviewer have to establish a good relationship with their interviewee?
When it came to actually doing the interview, though, I found myself very willing to stall when the scheduling seemed complicated. The thought of actually sitting down and trying to extract all the potential wonderful stories out of this professor was daunting. Some people don't believe that their stories would be interesting to anyone.
So I wondered: How do you convince someone that you basically just met that you are actually fascinated without seeming superficial?
This especially worried me because I felt I was finally delivering on my dream of helping to make these stories more available to other women. What if when it came down to it, my interviews weren't interesting enough to make any difference anyway? Also what if I brought up a topic that made my interviewee uncomfortable? Should I push her a bit or should I let go right away? What if I am not good at asking questions in a concise yet clear way? What if I make a fool of myself and it is all on tape?
In a lot of ways, I was right to be concerned. The professor's stories were really interesting, and there were many wonderful tidbits throughout her interview. Convincing her that it would be interesting to others wasn't easy, though. She wasn't interested in speaking about awards or contributions to her field. I didn't push her on that, and I'm still not sure if I should have. More importantly, though, I believe I could have asked her a bit about each topic in the pre-interview to get a feel for her reactions to different portions of the interview. I was also right that asking questions clearly and concisely is a hard thing to do simultaneously. Hopefully this is something that becomes easier over time.
There were also other things that I hadn't considered seriously enough—I ended up not speaking loud enough so that you could only barely hear me on the recording. Thankfully you could hear the professor's answers clearly!
When I listened to parts of the interview, though, I realized that these interesting stories had finally been recorded and were available for other women to hear. So though my concerns were actually founded in some ways, I realized that I have at the very least done what I had been hoping to do—I made more stories available for others to listen and learn.
As a woman in engineering, I have met people with various attitudes about the changes women bring to a traditionally male discipline. The different perspectives on this issue are brought by people young and old, male and female, and with various types of personalities that may or may not be typical among those who choose to pursue work in science and technology.
I still remember the first time I was ever asked about what it is like to be a woman in a male-dominated discipline. I honestly hadn't been aware of it until then. Immediately I thought of my main engineering class of about 75 students, and I realized that I could name all 8 female students and even point out exactly where they sat in the classroom.
Since then, in many discussions with my female colleagues, we try our best to embrace diverse perspectives and to carve out our own place in the discipline. The difficulty here is that integrating oneself becomes a personalized and anecdotal issue. Every woman I have met in math, physics, and engineering tells stories where they were clearly treated badly because they were women, stories where the discrimination is less clear, and stories where they misinterpreted well-intentioned behaviors of others. Each of these stories has its own context, its own characters, its own resolution. Because of the few women in the field in the first place, each story is so different that it is hard for us to piece together what general conclusions may help us in our career.
I and other women I've met just can't get enough of these stories. We want to hear how things went down, how people handled the situation, what words exactly were exchanged, which transgressions were ignored by colleagues, and which ones were finally acknowledged. We want to know how other women dealt with the separation of emotions and work, the balance of family and tenure, and the consolidation of a desire to make a difference and a need to support oneself financially.
--------------------------------------------
At some point I began to wonder how we could make more women's stories accessible to a larger audience, since it didn't seem that we should wait around for an increased number of women to serve as mentors and to create the oral tradition we craved.
It was at this point that I decided I wanted to do recorded interviews of women in engineering. How hard can it be? All I need is a mic and a recorder, right? Well I applied for a WISELI yearly grant for money, and instead they suggested instead I start by volunteering with the oral history group on campus.
I started by meeting with Troy Reeves, head of the program, and once I read A Field Notebook for Oral History, I was glad that I had not jumped in head first.
At the UW-Madison Oral History Program, there is an interview series dedicated to women who spent time at the UW in science, math and engineering. This is truly a collection of gems for female graduate students and young faculty—an opportunity to hear about the experiences of their colleagues in various disciplines. I have spoken with older female faculty, and they reminded me that they had few or no mentors. An archive of stories would enlighten even these experienced women professors as to what changes are really happening in the attitudes of their colleagues over time.
My first interest was to listen to the interviews that the oral history program already had in this special series called Women at UW in Science and Engineering. While I listened to interviews, I digitized them as well to earn my keep. I heard stories of women who had earned tenure and women who had been denied it. I heard of women who never had children and women who did at various times in their career. Also, I heard of women who had very supportive spouses with flexible career ambitions.
Some women came to the UW because it was really a great opportunity for them, others came as a compromise with their spouses, and still others came as a temporary option on their way to build a career and ended up staying. The women in the interviews I heard were from the departments of electrical engineering, mathematics, biology, medicine, agriculture, and zoology. This kind of vast diversity is exactly what I craved—a window into the wisdom that comes with experience, something that is difficult to find when I have gotten to know only three female professors in the nearly ten years I have spent at institutions of higher education.
------------------------------------------
This past summer I did my first oral history interview with a female engineering professor. I think of myself as a friendly, warm person who loves stories and is especially passionate about stories of women in science and engineering. What else could an interviewer have to establish a good relationship with their interviewee?
When it came to actually doing the interview, though, I found myself very willing to stall when the scheduling seemed complicated. The thought of actually sitting down and trying to extract all the potential wonderful stories out of this professor was daunting. Some people don't believe that their stories would be interesting to anyone.
So I wondered: How do you convince someone that you basically just met that you are actually fascinated without seeming superficial?
This especially worried me because I felt I was finally delivering on my dream of helping to make these stories more available to other women. What if when it came down to it, my interviews weren't interesting enough to make any difference anyway? Also what if I brought up a topic that made my interviewee uncomfortable? Should I push her a bit or should I let go right away? What if I am not good at asking questions in a concise yet clear way? What if I make a fool of myself and it is all on tape?
In a lot of ways, I was right to be concerned. The professor's stories were really interesting, and there were many wonderful tidbits throughout her interview. Convincing her that it would be interesting to others wasn't easy, though. She wasn't interested in speaking about awards or contributions to her field. I didn't push her on that, and I'm still not sure if I should have. More importantly, though, I believe I could have asked her a bit about each topic in the pre-interview to get a feel for her reactions to different portions of the interview. I was also right that asking questions clearly and concisely is a hard thing to do simultaneously. Hopefully this is something that becomes easier over time.
There were also other things that I hadn't considered seriously enough—I ended up not speaking loud enough so that you could only barely hear me on the recording. Thankfully you could hear the professor's answers clearly!
When I listened to parts of the interview, though, I realized that these interesting stories had finally been recorded and were available for other women to hear. So though my concerns were actually founded in some ways, I realized that I have at the very least done what I had been hoping to do—I made more stories available for others to listen and learn.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Advice on how to create a public oral history project—for those who don’t know exactly what an oral history is…
By Julia Steege
1) Have a mission for your project and a vision for the precise question it will address. This is important. For one, it will help you get funding, since no one will fund a project that does not have a clear focus. Second, having a clear mission and vision will help you change your project’s logistics (which, I guarantee you will have to do) without changing your project’s spirit and enable you to gracefully weather all the tiny mistakes that you will surely make throughout the project. Last, the sheer nobleness of your vision will keep you going when you are doing dreadful things like, oh, asking people for money or writing your seemingly billionth press release that no one pays attention to!
2) Keep it small. This is for two reasons. First, if it’s too ambitious, it will be hard to complete. Second, as relative nobodies, you’re probably only going get small grants and donations. Sadly, this means you will also have a small budget.
3) Connections, connections, connections. This might be the most important advice in oral history project planning as in life. Think of the organization where you have the most connections and do your project there. Unless you’ve established yourself as a 501-c3 non-profit, you’re going to need a fiscal agent who will handle your grant money for you. You’re going to need letters of support when you apply for grants. You might need liability insurance. (And, let me tell you, you don’t want to pay for that alone.) You’re going to need in-kind donations, which are donations of supplies and time. AND, most importantly, you are going to need people who actually care, show up, and want to be a part of your project!!!! Only good, strong connections will help you to accomplish these things.
4) Milk your cluelessness. For our project, we often met with possible grant-funders and said that we were very ambitious young people that wanted to accomplish an important project, but that we had no clout and little grant-writing experience. Grants people LOVE this. They want to fund those innovative, doing it for the love of doing it projects, and will greatly assist you, particularly if they see your vision, connections, and work ethic. Remember, doing a project that does not have an institutional affiliation--academic or otherwise--can be good in that it allows you maximum creativity and flexibility.
5) Include as many people in the project as possible--at least of course if you actually want people to care about your project. We included Quann gardeners by a) having them help plan the exhibit project and exhibit opening, b) interviewing/photographing as many people as possible, c) including as many people in the exhibit as we could, and d) putting up the exhibit right across from the community garden itself. First and foremost we wanted the gardeners to feel like they “owned” the project, so we showed up at their garden meetings to brainstorm the project months before we even started interviewing anybody. While we did work hard to get the media/public to come check out the exhibit, the project was most rewarding to us because it was for the Quann gardeners.
6) Don’t expect to get paid for your first project. Yah, it stinks I know, but don’t expect it.
7) Search out private funders. Grants are great and you should probably apply for a few of those, but you’ll have to jump through far fewer hoops to get private donations. After filling out tedious grant applications, we decided to go ask some private companies for small donations. We got rejected a lot but when people said ‘yes,’ it was the best feeling in the world. No follow up grant evaluations to fill out. No applications. Incredible! Go to companies that might have an interest in your project or are in the neighborhood. And, don’t ask for too much. Also, connections will help in this case too.
8) The project won’t always be glamorous, but it will be very rewarding. Of course, when we first imagined our project, we pictured ourselves camping out in the community garden, eating lovely fresh-picked tomatoes, interviewing many friendly gardeners, and creating art from our discoveries. We did all this, and it was incredible. But a majority of our project consisted of writings, emails, phone calls, meetings, and logistics, logistics, logistics. When we first dreamed up the project, we didn’t realize that the project process wouldn’t be like starring in a movie. However, we felt like we skirted the line between community organizers and exhibit creators while creating the exhibit, and this made all the logistics worth it in the end. And watching all the gardeners discover their photos and quotes made it worth it too.
I don’t think we could’ve had a better experience with our first public oral history project. And now as we venture into the lovely period of our life we like to call post-college unemployment, we wish you fellow non-experts out there many happy projects. Public projects are important. And somebody’s got to do them.
So, I admit-I don’t truly know what an “oral history” is. I know that oral historians interview people and archive their interviews, but I’m not so sure if, say, there are rules for how one should conduct an oral history or, for example, what the exact difference between a journalist and oral historian is. So if I’m ignorant when it comes to oral history protocol, why in heavens am I writing this Wisconsin oral history blog entry? Because, this past summer my friend and I graduated from college and created our first public project, a bilingual exhibit that features photographs and quotations to tell the story of why gardening at Quann Community Garden is important to its gardeners. Now, I want to advise other people like me—people ill-versed in the world of oral histories, project planning, and grant writing; people who might be described as the polar opposite of an expert— on how to create a successful and personally fulfilling public project.
1) Have a mission for your project and a vision for the precise question it will address. This is important. For one, it will help you get funding, since no one will fund a project that does not have a clear focus. Second, having a clear mission and vision will help you change your project’s logistics (which, I guarantee you will have to do) without changing your project’s spirit and enable you to gracefully weather all the tiny mistakes that you will surely make throughout the project. Last, the sheer nobleness of your vision will keep you going when you are doing dreadful things like, oh, asking people for money or writing your seemingly billionth press release that no one pays attention to!
2) Keep it small. This is for two reasons. First, if it’s too ambitious, it will be hard to complete. Second, as relative nobodies, you’re probably only going get small grants and donations. Sadly, this means you will also have a small budget.
3) Connections, connections, connections. This might be the most important advice in oral history project planning as in life. Think of the organization where you have the most connections and do your project there. Unless you’ve established yourself as a 501-c3 non-profit, you’re going to need a fiscal agent who will handle your grant money for you. You’re going to need letters of support when you apply for grants. You might need liability insurance. (And, let me tell you, you don’t want to pay for that alone.) You’re going to need in-kind donations, which are donations of supplies and time. AND, most importantly, you are going to need people who actually care, show up, and want to be a part of your project!!!! Only good, strong connections will help you to accomplish these things.
4) Milk your cluelessness. For our project, we often met with possible grant-funders and said that we were very ambitious young people that wanted to accomplish an important project, but that we had no clout and little grant-writing experience. Grants people LOVE this. They want to fund those innovative, doing it for the love of doing it projects, and will greatly assist you, particularly if they see your vision, connections, and work ethic. Remember, doing a project that does not have an institutional affiliation--academic or otherwise--can be good in that it allows you maximum creativity and flexibility.
5) Include as many people in the project as possible--at least of course if you actually want people to care about your project. We included Quann gardeners by a) having them help plan the exhibit project and exhibit opening, b) interviewing/photographing as many people as possible, c) including as many people in the exhibit as we could, and d) putting up the exhibit right across from the community garden itself. First and foremost we wanted the gardeners to feel like they “owned” the project, so we showed up at their garden meetings to brainstorm the project months before we even started interviewing anybody. While we did work hard to get the media/public to come check out the exhibit, the project was most rewarding to us because it was for the Quann gardeners.
6) Don’t expect to get paid for your first project. Yah, it stinks I know, but don’t expect it.
7) Search out private funders. Grants are great and you should probably apply for a few of those, but you’ll have to jump through far fewer hoops to get private donations. After filling out tedious grant applications, we decided to go ask some private companies for small donations. We got rejected a lot but when people said ‘yes,’ it was the best feeling in the world. No follow up grant evaluations to fill out. No applications. Incredible! Go to companies that might have an interest in your project or are in the neighborhood. And, don’t ask for too much. Also, connections will help in this case too.
8) The project won’t always be glamorous, but it will be very rewarding. Of course, when we first imagined our project, we pictured ourselves camping out in the community garden, eating lovely fresh-picked tomatoes, interviewing many friendly gardeners, and creating art from our discoveries. We did all this, and it was incredible. But a majority of our project consisted of writings, emails, phone calls, meetings, and logistics, logistics, logistics. When we first dreamed up the project, we didn’t realize that the project process wouldn’t be like starring in a movie. However, we felt like we skirted the line between community organizers and exhibit creators while creating the exhibit, and this made all the logistics worth it in the end. And watching all the gardeners discover their photos and quotes made it worth it too.
I don’t think we could’ve had a better experience with our first public oral history project. And now as we venture into the lovely period of our life we like to call post-college unemployment, we wish you fellow non-experts out there many happy projects. Public projects are important. And somebody’s got to do them.
[Note on photos: First, Quann gardeners and others viewing the exhibit. Second, Julia Steege (with microphone) and Elizabeth Henley, Steege's project partner, speaking to exhibit opening attendees.]
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Some quick hits, re: oral history in WI
Some quick news regarding some former WI OH Day presenters. First, the students from UW--Eau Claire who presented earlier this year on Women Studies at UWEC have posted (or someone posted for them) their interviews to Minds@UW. I'm not sure if you can access them, if you are not a UW student/faculty/staff, but here's the URL: http://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/34304
Second, Kathy Kline, who presented at the 2008 WI OH Day in Madison has published her book, People of the Sturgeon: Wisconsin’s Love Affair with an Ancient Fish, earlier this year. For more information type the book's title into your favorite search engine. Typing into my favorite engine gave me several links to the book and information about it.
Last, later this month I'll start talking to folks at UW--Milwaukee about formalizing the date and location for the day-long events of 2010 WI Oral History Day. So, more details on that later.
Troy
Second, Kathy Kline, who presented at the 2008 WI OH Day in Madison has published her book, People of the Sturgeon: Wisconsin’s Love Affair with an Ancient Fish, earlier this year. For more information type the book's title into your favorite search engine. Typing into my favorite engine gave me several links to the book and information about it.
Last, later this month I'll start talking to folks at UW--Milwaukee about formalizing the date and location for the day-long events of 2010 WI Oral History Day. So, more details on that later.
Troy
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
It's So Hard to Say Good-bye
Yep, I broke out a Boyz 2 Men lyric; this must be serious.
This week marks the end of two student staff tenures at the OHP. Both of these people attended/participated the 2008 WOHD and assisted in the preparation and implementation of the 2009 WOHD. On top of that, they both toiled under my draconian leadership for well over a year each. For this they deserved more than a farewell letter. But I hope this missive will pass for some type of golden parachute.
Allison Page started working for us in late 2007 as part of the student team involved in the Forest Products Lab oral history project. Except for initial project planning and funds securing
, Allison played a role in every other aspect of this endeavor. She worked on the project through the 2008 calendar year, first as a graduate student at the campus’ library school, then as a limited-term employee after she graduated with her M.A. in May 2008. After she helped put that project to bed, Allison worked on various projects for our program, including doing her share of the behind-the-scenes work for the 2009 WOHD. She helped me keep my sanity during the build up and presentation of the Day, and she also built this blog in its aftermath.
Sarah Mueller began her “career” with us in May 2008, one month after she attended that
year’s WOHD. Over the last 15 months, she accomplished more than I can describe here. She digitized extent oral histories; summarized, cataloged, and updated our website for recently conducted interviews; answered reference questions sent from around the state and country; started work to collaborate with the campus digital collection center to post audio and summaries to a soon-to-be-created UW—Madison Campus Voices web presentation; and handled just about every small fire that I sent to her to extinguish. She, too, graduated from the library school with her M.A.; in her case she just finished this month. Plus, she shared with me her love of Def Leppard, one of the 1980s Hair Bands. Since I, too, have rocked out to their music, we bonded.
Most important they helped me as I continued to implement the changes to bring the OHP into the 21st Century. Their enthusiasm, sense of humor, willingness to try new ideas or to propose new ways to look at things, and their work ethic will be tough to replace. They leave to greener pastures: Allison to help lead a group of students going to Ireland; Sarah to look for gainful employment in the U.S. South. I wish them good luck and good times.
But on top of their solid contributions to the advancement of WOHD and OHP, I will take with me the memories [of them] to be my sunshine after the rain. Yep, I finish with Boyz 2 Men, too. Corny, yes, but sometimes the sappiest sentiment sounds the best.
This week marks the end of two student staff tenures at the OHP. Both of these people attended/participated the 2008 WOHD and assisted in the preparation and implementation of the 2009 WOHD. On top of that, they both toiled under my draconian leadership for well over a year each. For this they deserved more than a farewell letter. But I hope this missive will pass for some type of golden parachute.
Allison Page started working for us in late 2007 as part of the student team involved in the Forest Products Lab oral history project. Except for initial project planning and funds securing
, Allison played a role in every other aspect of this endeavor. She worked on the project through the 2008 calendar year, first as a graduate student at the campus’ library school, then as a limited-term employee after she graduated with her M.A. in May 2008. After she helped put that project to bed, Allison worked on various projects for our program, including doing her share of the behind-the-scenes work for the 2009 WOHD. She helped me keep my sanity during the build up and presentation of the Day, and she also built this blog in its aftermath.Sarah Mueller began her “career” with us in May 2008, one month after she attended that
year’s WOHD. Over the last 15 months, she accomplished more than I can describe here. She digitized extent oral histories; summarized, cataloged, and updated our website for recently conducted interviews; answered reference questions sent from around the state and country; started work to collaborate with the campus digital collection center to post audio and summaries to a soon-to-be-created UW—Madison Campus Voices web presentation; and handled just about every small fire that I sent to her to extinguish. She, too, graduated from the library school with her M.A.; in her case she just finished this month. Plus, she shared with me her love of Def Leppard, one of the 1980s Hair Bands. Since I, too, have rocked out to their music, we bonded.Most important they helped me as I continued to implement the changes to bring the OHP into the 21st Century. Their enthusiasm, sense of humor, willingness to try new ideas or to propose new ways to look at things, and their work ethic will be tough to replace. They leave to greener pastures: Allison to help lead a group of students going to Ireland; Sarah to look for gainful employment in the U.S. South. I wish them good luck and good times.
But on top of their solid contributions to the advancement of WOHD and OHP, I will take with me the memories [of them] to be my sunshine after the rain. Yep, I finish with Boyz 2 Men, too. Corny, yes, but sometimes the sappiest sentiment sounds the best.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Reflections on 2009 WI Oral History Day, Or How Many Pop Culture References Can Be Made?
One of my favorite movies, Field of Dreams, has spawned a mantra used and/or paraphrased by many, myself included. “If you build it, he [they] will come.” That phrase was uttered to Ray Kinsella by a bodyless voice that we find out is the ghost of “Shoeless” Joe Jackson. I don’t know how effective this phrase is for other folks who use it. I suppose if I asked around or used the Google I could find examples of its application (both effective and not) within many different spheres. But that’s not the point of this essay, nor do I have the motivation to research it.
My point is to summarize the 2009 Wisconsin Oral History Day (WOHD). I will do a summary to submit to the Wisconsin Humanities Council, one of the primary WOHD sponsors. That document will touch on the facts, such as the event’s dates, location, attendees, publicity strategies, survey results, yada, yada, yada. Don’t perceive my Seinfeld as criticism, that information is vital not only for the quintessential state humanities group but also for our program as we look forward to at least one more WOHD (next spring in or near Milwaukee.
That summary, however, will not capture the moods, feelings, and thoughts of not only me (the self-professed Ruben Kincaid of this Partridge Family bus) but also (and more importantly) the nearly 65 men and women who attended at least one of the Day’s events. Nor does it capture the same emotions for those folks who attended last year’s event in Madison. And it won’t capture a prominent goal in doing all of this work: building a guild of people interested in oral history in the state and region. Guild, although containing few letters, is a “50 cent word,” as my father (and probably many others) would say. (Although in today’s economy is might be called a “50 cent word now valued at 15.) One of the interweb’s dictionary sites defines guild as “an association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards.” That definition is a touch too high brow for my tastes, but I feel it captures the essence of WOHD. A hot word on this campus is community, and I use that word too. So, for those who feel guild is a little too hoity toity, insert community.
So, are we building a guild or community? I don’t know for sure. I do know I watched people seek out our presenters to ask questions when sessions stopped due to shortage of time. I do know that people marveled at Jim Leary’s poise and poignancy when he gave a presentation on Joua Bee Xiong with his widow and other family members in attendance. I do know that Stephen Sloan’s presentation led folks to see how a long, tall Texan does hard work to add to the oral history of his state and region through cross-cultural and community-focused oral history projects. And it gave him a cult following in America’s Dairyland. And I know that people appreciated Barb Sommer’s grace when she discussed the work behind the American Indian Oral History Manual, offering a method to assist researchers interested in embarking on oral history or tradition gathering within the Tribes/Nations. (Personally, I hope this book will continue to encourage ongoing discussions with Indian Country about gathering & preserving their rich histories, whether or not they choose to ask for help from us whites.)
And that only touches on our key speakers. The panel presenters spoke on a variety of topics, from women farmers and hip-hop artists, to AIM schools, to a couple of African American women who worked hard to make their workplace and place of worship better. These men and women took the time to reflect deeply and present thoughtfully on myriad topics and made WOHD a rousing success. And that does not touch on one last characteristic of WOHD: fun. Yep, fun. In Idaho we joked that state employees were not allowed to have fun during work. But this UW—Madison employee, along with other state/university people and Wisconsinites who attended, smiled and laughed quite a bit. (If Wisconsin does not allow its employees to enjoy themselves during work, then let us forget that I wrote this paragraph, OK.)
So, I will begin my conclusion [you know a conclusion will be long when it has a beginning] with this thought, which is another of my [paraphrased here] favorite sayings. It takes a village [in this case] to create an oral history guild. So, while events, such as WOHD, start to bring people together as a community or guild, all of us need to take the energy from it to set up meetings, plan projects, and assist each other. While oral history as a transaction works best with two people, oral history as a field or avocation or hobby works best when people (scholars, public historians, teachers, genealogists, librarians, and interested individuals) work together to create the best projects, procedures, and practices to gather and preserve someone’s memories, thoughts, and stories. Bringing together folks for a night and day is good; working on doing good oral history all year is better.
I end with another quote from Field of Dreams. Just before Ray Kinsella discovers that his dad was playing catcher in the recently finished game, he says this to Shoeless Joe. “I have done everything you have told me to, and I’ve never once asked, ‘What’s in it for me?’” When Joe asked, “What are you saying, Ray?” Ray says, “I’m asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’”
My point is to summarize the 2009 Wisconsin Oral History Day (WOHD). I will do a summary to submit to the Wisconsin Humanities Council, one of the primary WOHD sponsors. That document will touch on the facts, such as the event’s dates, location, attendees, publicity strategies, survey results, yada, yada, yada. Don’t perceive my Seinfeld as criticism, that information is vital not only for the quintessential state humanities group but also for our program as we look forward to at least one more WOHD (next spring in or near Milwaukee.
That summary, however, will not capture the moods, feelings, and thoughts of not only me (the self-professed Ruben Kincaid of this Partridge Family bus) but also (and more importantly) the nearly 65 men and women who attended at least one of the Day’s events. Nor does it capture the same emotions for those folks who attended last year’s event in Madison. And it won’t capture a prominent goal in doing all of this work: building a guild of people interested in oral history in the state and region. Guild, although containing few letters, is a “50 cent word,” as my father (and probably many others) would say. (Although in today’s economy is might be called a “50 cent word now valued at 15.) One of the interweb’s dictionary sites defines guild as “an association of persons of the same trade or pursuits, formed to protect mutual interests and maintain standards.” That definition is a touch too high brow for my tastes, but I feel it captures the essence of WOHD. A hot word on this campus is community, and I use that word too. So, for those who feel guild is a little too hoity toity, insert community.
So, are we building a guild or community? I don’t know for sure. I do know I watched people seek out our presenters to ask questions when sessions stopped due to shortage of time. I do know that people marveled at Jim Leary’s poise and poignancy when he gave a presentation on Joua Bee Xiong with his widow and other family members in attendance. I do know that Stephen Sloan’s presentation led folks to see how a long, tall Texan does hard work to add to the oral history of his state and region through cross-cultural and community-focused oral history projects. And it gave him a cult following in America’s Dairyland. And I know that people appreciated Barb Sommer’s grace when she discussed the work behind the American Indian Oral History Manual, offering a method to assist researchers interested in embarking on oral history or tradition gathering within the Tribes/Nations. (Personally, I hope this book will continue to encourage ongoing discussions with Indian Country about gathering & preserving their rich histories, whether or not they choose to ask for help from us whites.)
And that only touches on our key speakers. The panel presenters spoke on a variety of topics, from women farmers and hip-hop artists, to AIM schools, to a couple of African American women who worked hard to make their workplace and place of worship better. These men and women took the time to reflect deeply and present thoughtfully on myriad topics and made WOHD a rousing success. And that does not touch on one last characteristic of WOHD: fun. Yep, fun. In Idaho we joked that state employees were not allowed to have fun during work. But this UW—Madison employee, along with other state/university people and Wisconsinites who attended, smiled and laughed quite a bit. (If Wisconsin does not allow its employees to enjoy themselves during work, then let us forget that I wrote this paragraph, OK.)
So, I will begin my conclusion [you know a conclusion will be long when it has a beginning] with this thought, which is another of my [paraphrased here] favorite sayings. It takes a village [in this case] to create an oral history guild. So, while events, such as WOHD, start to bring people together as a community or guild, all of us need to take the energy from it to set up meetings, plan projects, and assist each other. While oral history as a transaction works best with two people, oral history as a field or avocation or hobby works best when people (scholars, public historians, teachers, genealogists, librarians, and interested individuals) work together to create the best projects, procedures, and practices to gather and preserve someone’s memories, thoughts, and stories. Bringing together folks for a night and day is good; working on doing good oral history all year is better.
I end with another quote from Field of Dreams. Just before Ray Kinsella discovers that his dad was playing catcher in the recently finished game, he says this to Shoeless Joe. “I have done everything you have told me to, and I’ve never once asked, ‘What’s in it for me?’” When Joe asked, “What are you saying, Ray?” Ray says, “I’m asking, ‘What’s in it for me?’”
So, what’s in it for you? Well, whether you actually record an interview or not, oral history can show a person that value of doing one’s homework; reflecting deeply on a topic, meeting interesting people; asking questions, actively listening to the answers, and posing better follow-up questions; and following through on goals.
These are all vital items to not only be a good oral historian but also a good human being. And in Wisconsin [fill in any other state or country] we always can use a few more good folks. As I say to most everyone I meet or train, I appreciate the time given to me to talk (or in this case) write about oral history. And if I never see that person again, I always wish them well. But I hope every meeting (and this missive) is just the start of a beautiful friendship. There, I got Field of Dreams, Partridge Family, Seinfeld, Field of Dreams again, and Casablanca; my work here is done. For now.
-Troy Reeves
Head, UW-Madison Oral History Program
Wisconsin Oral History Day, 2009 Eau Claire, WI
The 2009 Wisconsin Oral History Day was held on April 26 & 27 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The Sunday night opening session (6-8 pm) was held at the Chippewa Valley Museum with a presentation by Dr. Jim Leary, entitled "Oral History and Public Folklore: Working with Joua Bee Xiong.”
Most of Monday’s morning activities focused on oral history project planning, beginning with a mini-workshop, led by UW—Madison Oral History Program Head, Troy Reeves, and finishing with a presentation on community planning in diverse setting, given by Baylor University Oral History Program Director, Stephen Sloan. In between those events, students from UW—Eau Claire students offered a case study of project planning as they discussed a current oral history project with the UW—Eau Claire Women’s Studies Program.
Monday’s keynote was given by independent oral historian/author Barb Sommer. Sommer, who resides in St. Paul, will present, “The Story Behind the Manual: The Creation of The American Indian Oral History Manual: Making Many Voices Heard. As with Leary’s talk, the Wisconsin Humanities Council sponsored Sommer’s presentation.
Also, WOHD featured panels/roundtables with students, teachers, and professors. The Day ended with a brief wrap-up, led by Reeves and Sloan, as they and the attendees reviewed what did transpire and how best to move WOHD forward.
Most of Monday’s morning activities focused on oral history project planning, beginning with a mini-workshop, led by UW—Madison Oral History Program Head, Troy Reeves, and finishing with a presentation on community planning in diverse setting, given by Baylor University Oral History Program Director, Stephen Sloan. In between those events, students from UW—Eau Claire students offered a case study of project planning as they discussed a current oral history project with the UW—Eau Claire Women’s Studies Program.
Monday’s keynote was given by independent oral historian/author Barb Sommer. Sommer, who resides in St. Paul, will present, “The Story Behind the Manual: The Creation of The American Indian Oral History Manual: Making Many Voices Heard. As with Leary’s talk, the Wisconsin Humanities Council sponsored Sommer’s presentation.
Also, WOHD featured panels/roundtables with students, teachers, and professors. The Day ended with a brief wrap-up, led by Reeves and Sloan, as they and the attendees reviewed what did transpire and how best to move WOHD forward.
Why Oral History Day?
The organization charged with overseeing oral history throughout the U.S.—The Oral History Association—has defined oral history as a method of gathering and preserving first-hand information through recorded interviews with participants in past events and ways of life. People throughout the U.S. have used this historical practice since the days after the Revolutionary War through World War II, including the 19th Century efforts of Lyman Draper at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Since 1945 and with assistance from advancements in technology, specifically the tape recorder, men and women throughout the country have embarked on oral history interviews and projects of every shape and size. In Wisconsin the last sixty years have brought oral history projects at the statewide level, such as at the Wisconsin Historical Society & Wisconsin Veterans Museum, and the campus level, with projects and programs at UW—LaCrosse and Lawrence University, to mention two. There have been myriad projects and interviews done at the local, community, and individual level, too.
In the early 21st Century, doing quality oral history has become as important as ever. In this age people communicate probably more than ever, with assistance from recent technologies, such as cell phones and email. Those same people, however, will communicate in great detail (or in a way that can be preserved) less than ever. Creating a situation where a person’s stories, memories, and opinions and the context around them can be gathered and preserved can help to bridge this resource gap. Oral history does serve as a logical way to build primary-source material for future students, educators, historians, and interested individuals.
For all of these reasons and more, the UW—Madison Oral History Program (OHP) head, Troy Reeves designed Wisconsin Oral History Day (WOHD) to bring together people from around the state and region interested in the practice and methodology of oral history to a single location to learn the steps to conduct quality oral histories, to discuss extent projects, to network regarding future collaboration, and to strengthen the guild of past, present, and future practitioners of oral history.
In the early 21st Century, doing quality oral history has become as important as ever. In this age people communicate probably more than ever, with assistance from recent technologies, such as cell phones and email. Those same people, however, will communicate in great detail (or in a way that can be preserved) less than ever. Creating a situation where a person’s stories, memories, and opinions and the context around them can be gathered and preserved can help to bridge this resource gap. Oral history does serve as a logical way to build primary-source material for future students, educators, historians, and interested individuals.
For all of these reasons and more, the UW—Madison Oral History Program (OHP) head, Troy Reeves designed Wisconsin Oral History Day (WOHD) to bring together people from around the state and region interested in the practice and methodology of oral history to a single location to learn the steps to conduct quality oral histories, to discuss extent projects, to network regarding future collaboration, and to strengthen the guild of past, present, and future practitioners of oral history.
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