Overview
Oral History Analysis
Due by Sunday, October 27 by 11:59pm
https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt129033hb&doc.vi... In this assignment, you will practice using oral histories by considering materials from UCLA’s Guide to the UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research Interview Transcripts and Recordings. From your chosen oral history, spend time looking through the transcripts and choose one transcript to read in detail. Part 1: Annotating and Coding 1. Choose 5-10 pages from your transcript. These 5-10 pages can be anywhere within the transcript, but they must be continuous; you can choose an 5-10-page section of your chosen transcript. 2. Read the transcript (preferably several times: once for understand, once for analysis, once for connections/synthesis beyond the transcript, once for understanding its place within the larger transcript and project) 3. Annotate the transcript in a way that makes sense of the transcript as a document and within the larger context of its production a. Think about the questions from the first assignment (Analysis of a Primary Document): Who is interviewing whom, why, so what, and why was this person interviewed instead of someone else? b. Think about what questions are interesting, which questions were asked and why they were asked, which questions were not asked? Part 2: Oral Histories as a Method In a memo, consider the following numbered questions (with the lettered questions guiding your answers) using between 800 and1000 words. Attach a copy of your annotated transcript at the beginning of your memo. 1. What insights might be gleaned from this material that point to interesting issues about the time, about contemporary society, about social issues that arise in the interview? 2. Can you tell anything about the interviewer? The interviewee? a. What can you glean about the relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee? 3. What kinds of implicit and explicit understandings or concepts emerge in this interview? a. Are there any moments when there is a disconnect between the understandings and/or assumptions of the interviewer and interviewee? b. Why has this happened? c. How is it resolved? 4. How can we as comparative and historical sociologists use this oral history? a. What are the possible uses of this kind of oral history? b. Does it tell us directly about the past? Does it provide a window into cultural norms or institutional activities? 5. What are some questions in the historical social sciences that this oral history might help answer? a. What questions can you think of that this oral history would (help) answer? What questions would use this oral history as data to analyze? 6. What do you think are the benefits of using oral histories in historical research? a. Where do you see potential pitfalls or problems?
(Please annotate the document as well in the final document)