Category: oral history

The Material of Memory: Revisiting Our Histories of Immigration

by SOHA News, posted in exhibit, oral history

postermemory

A University of California, Irvine undergraduate student curated exhibition under the faculty advisement of Dr. Ana Elizabeth Rosas.

Duration: March 17, 2017 – April 7, 2017, Viewpoint Gallery, Student Center

This exhibition is co-sponsored by the Departments of Chicano-Latino Studies and History, School of Social Sciences, UCI Special Collections and Archives, Illuminations, Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture & Inclusion.

Please share this flyer and invite guests to join you! Visit http://illuminations.uci.edu/events/2017_3_17_Material_of_Memory.html for more information.

SOHA Spring 2017 Newsletter

by SOHA News, posted in conference, newsletter, oral history

SOHA Spring 2017 Newsletter_Page_1Greetings SOHA Members and Supporters,

Here is our Spring 2017 Newsletter, filled with information about our upcoming conference in Tempe, Arizona. We have an exciting line up of presentations for you this year and we’d love to see you there. Thank you for all of you who have already registered. For those of you who have not, early bird registration is still open until April 12, 2017.  You can register online at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2017-southwest-oral-history-association-annual-conference-tickets-31420163555?aff=es2.

At SOHA, we are dedicated to helping oral historians in the American Southwest however we can. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us at soha@unlv.edu or 702-895-5011.

Thank you all for the amazing work that you do. We look forward to seeing you all in Tempe!

 

SOHA OFFICE

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Box 455020

4505 S. Maryland Parkway

Las Vegas, NV 89154-5020

 

The University of Nevada Oral History Archive

by SOHA News, posted in collections, oral history

The University of Nevada Oral History Archive is a database containing the transcripts of several hundred oral histories documenting Nevada’s communities, events, and people. The interviews, which date from the mid-1960s to the present, contain firsthand recollections of topics including mining, ranching, casino gaming, university history, politics and government, Great Basin Indians, and the experiences of various ethnic groups in the settlement and development of the West. The collection also features numerous biographical volumes of individuals whose lives illuminate important themes in the history of the state and region.

Many of these interviews were conducted by the University of Nevada Oral History Program, which was founded in 1964. Others were sponsored by or produced in partnership with local, regional, and national organizations including the Center for Basque Studies, Nevada Humanities, the Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society, the Regional Transportation of Washoe County (RTC Washoe), and the Library of Congress.

Many of the oral histories included here are connected to other manuscript and photograph collections found in Special Collections and University Archives.

Audio Recordings

In many cases, the audio recordings from which these transcripts are derived are available to researchers upon request. However, because the verbatim transcripts often were reviewed and corrected by the persons interviewed, the edited transcripts are generally recognized as the account of record and may depart from the original recordings in sequencing and content.

Permissions

The oral histories contained in this archive may be freely downloaded and/or printed for personal reference and educational use. Requests for permission to use transcripts or recordings for other purposes should be directed to the Special Collections Department, University of Nevada, Reno Libraries, (775) 682-5665, specoll@unr.edu.

Visit http://contentdm.library.unr.edu/explore/UNOHPExplore/UNOHP-home.html for more information.

Stories from the Women, Politics, and Activism Project

by SOHA News, posted in collections, oral history

The “Women, Politics, and Activism Project,” at the Center for Oral and Public History focuses on the political lives and actions of Southern California women from the 1960s to the present.   This project centers on conducting more than 100 new oral histories and making accessible another 45 recently recorded interviews with a diverse group of women activists and former elected officials.  By recording women’s memories, we are demonstrating the myriad of ways women have participated in politics from formal, elected office to local community-based organizations.  These oral histories highlight how as individuals and collectively women have made a difference in the types of policies enacted by county and municipal governments in Los Angeles and Orange County.  These interviews also help us understand the reasons why women decide to take political action and, perhaps, shed light on why a gender gap still exists in Americans’ political ambitions (men are still far more likely to run for office than women).  This project also explores the important role women have played in influencing politics and policy in Southern California from outside – as leaders and members, for example, of women’s organizations, environmental organizations, and groups that advocate for workers, the poor, and the disabled.

Visit http://coph.fullerton.edu/WPA/index.php for more information.

Mink Award

by SOHA News, posted in conference, oral history

Southwest Oral History Association is celebrating Women’s History Month! For our flashback Friday, here is President Marcia M. Gallo who presented the 2016 James V. Mink Award to oral historian and filmmaker Virginia Espino at SOHA’s 35th Anniversary Celebration which was held on October 15, 2016.

Vietnamese American Oral History Project

by SOHA News, posted in collections, exhibit, oral history

About Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project

Life Stories of Vietnamese Americans in Southern California

 

Viet Stories: Vietnamese American Oral History Project at the University of California, Irvine actively assembles, preserves, and disseminates the life stories of Vietnamese Americans in Southern California. The project contributes to expanding archives on Vietnamese Americans with the primary goal of capturing first-generation stories for students, researchers, and the community. Launched in 2011, VAOHP is housed in the Department of Asian American Studies in the School of Humanities and collaborates with the UCI Libraries Southeast Asian Archive.

There are over 1.8 million Vietnamese Americans in the United States, with the largest concentration of Vietnamese residing in Southern California. Since the 1970s, Vietnamese Americans have dramatically transformed Southern California’s demographics and landscape, and this project aims to represent the diversity of their experiences.

Our objective is to capture the oral histories of first generation Vietnamese Americans who have memories of life in Vietnam, the Vietnam War, and the displacement and resettlement of refugees from Vietnam. Viet Stories plays an instrumental role in documenting their histories and legacies in order to preserve their stories for future generations.

These audio- and/or video-taped life stories include Vietnamese and/or English-language transcripts of the interviews, brief summaries, time logs, and photographs of narrators. Some narrators have also contributed additional materials such as their own photographs and documents to be preserved with their stories. Aligned with the purpose of training future generations of leaders, faculty train UC Irvine students to conduct oral histories in their courses, such as in Linda Trinh Vo’s Research Methodologies/Field Research class and Tram Le’s Vietnamese American Experience class. These comprise a number of the “sub-collections” within Viet Stories.

Dr. Linda Trinh Vo is the Director of Viet Stories and is a Professor in the Department of Asian American Studies. Tram Le is the Associate Director of Viet Stories. Viet Stories Advisory Committee members include Dr. Vicki L. Ruiz, Professor, Department of History and Chair of Chicano/Latino Studies; Dr. James Kyung-Jin Lee, former Chair and Associate Professor of the Department of Asian American Studies; Dr. Thuy Vo Dang, Archivist, Orange County and Southeast Asian Archive Center (OC&SEAA) and Inaugural Viet Stories Project Director (now titled Associate Director); Audra Eagle Yun, the UCI Libraries’ Head of Special Collections; Christina J. Woo, Research Librarian for Chicano/Latino Studies, Linguistics, Women’s Studies, Athletics, and Music; Rina Carvalho, Department Manager, Department of Asian American Studies; and Daniel Do-Khanh, Esq., former President, Vietnamese American Community Ambassadors (VACA)- UCI alumni chapter. Viet Stories is grateful for assistance by multiple staff from the UCI Libraries, including Mark Vega, Programmer; and Sylvia Irving, Graphic Designer.

We wish to thank Michelle Light, formerly UCI Libraries’ Head of Special Collections, for her contributions to the digitalization of the interviews as well as Matthew McKinley, former UCI Libraries Digital Projects Specialist. We also would like to thank Caroline McGuire and Kasey Ning, former Department Managers, Department of Asian American Studies.

Viet Stories also collaborates with individuals and organizations to gather and house previously completed and ongoing oral history projects. Viet Stories is collaborating with the 500 Oral Histories Project by the Vietnamese American Heritage Foundation based in Texas by transcribing, translating, and digitizing their Southern California interviews. This partnership will further both our objectives of actively preserving Vietnamese American history.

If you would like to learn how you could volunteer for this project, to recommend an individual whose story should be preserved, or would like to know about how you can collaborate with Viet Stories, please contact Tram Le at vaohp@uci.edu. Viet Stories is supported by generous donations from individual donors and foundations. We welcome your donations to sustain and expand our collection.

Attend the UCI Spring Exhibit Opening Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Southeast Asian Archive, May 16, 2017.

For more information visit news.lib.uci.edu/ or contact Charla Batey, Communications & Events Officer at cbatey@uci.eduor 949-824-4658.

The Academy

by SOHA News, posted in collections, oral history

The Academy’s efforts to record filmmakers’ stories began in 1948 when Film Curator Howard Walls interviewed a number of silent film pioneers such as J. Searle Dawley and Blanche Sweet. In 1989, the Academy established its Oral History Program. The program was based around recording audio interviews, with edited transcripts bound into volumes and accessed through the Margaret Herrick Library. These in-depth and long-form interviews take a detailed look at the careers of more than 70 individuals, including such visionaries as Haskell Wexler, Theadora van Runkle, and Frank Pierson. To bring these efforts into the future and to support the needs of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures, the Oral History Projects department was established in late 2012. The goal is to unify and manage all forms of oral history at the Academy, from recording, to collection, curation, and preservation.


For more information about the Howard Walls and Oral History Program collections, visit the Collections page.

Oral History Diagram

by SOHA News, posted in oral history

Oral history diagram was provided by the Fairfield Foundation. The Main Street Oral History Project preserves and presents the  history of Gloucester’s Main Street community through living memory of Gloucester Courthouse’s thriving business district. Visit www.fairfieldfoundation.org/oral-history project for more details.

#oralhistory #history #archive #diagram

New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum

by SOHA News, posted in collections, oral history

Oral History Program

As part of the Museum’s mission to collect and preserve the agricultural heritage of New Mexico, the Museum implemented an Oral History Program in the mid-1990s. This systematic collection of living people’s recollections of their experiences with farming, ranching, and rural life is a major component in researching and interpreting these subjects for our visitors. Curators incorporate audio tracks and quotes into most of our exhibits—wouldn’t you rather hear about history from the people that were actually there?