My project is on the oral history methodology. This is a natural fit since I was fortunate to be a part of a neat oral history project while working as a librarian at Florida Memorial University, a small HBCU in Miami, Florida. Oral history research resurfaced during last semester’s Research Methods seminar and I am glad that I have the chance to delve deeper in this course.
That said, so far I have compiled 19 articles and one book on oral history theory and best practice. Here is a Google Docs link. The readings examine everything from applications to various domains (nursing, religion, feminist studies, police work, post-colonial African studies); the philosophical underpinnings of oral history; step-by-step procedures for conducting fieldwork; ways of handling exceptional circumstances (humor, interviews with individual who have survived or participated in mass atrocities); a case study on the Civil Rights Oral History Survey Project (CROHSP) and even a survey of noteworthy international oral history projects. The journal, Oral History Review, is a great resource, I have discovered. I have, however, gathered articles from other publications.
Next up, I will synthesize the readings in order to identify major themes pertaining to the oral history methodology.