Uncovering Hidden Narratives: Georgia State University Oral History Symposium

Submitted by Joan Dudzinski and Brooke Rose

This weekend Information Services Supervisors Joan Dudzinski and Brooke Rose attended a one day symposium on oral history projects at Georgia State University. Multiple sessions were offered both for those wishing to start an oral history project and those who were already working with an established program. As many of you know, FCPL has an established oral history program, Forsyth Remembers, which is currently collecting stories related to Lake Lanier. Joan and Brooke attended multiple sessions with the goal of continuing to grow Forsyth Remembers. 

 Keynote Address

The opening keynote speaker was Dr. Althea Natalga Sumpter who spoke about her experience in collecting and preserving oral histories from the Gullah Geechee culture. She shared how, although she herself was from the culture but being from a neighboring county, she had to first earn their respect before opening up to her. One should honor and respect a community culture as it is an act of trust to share their histories. The focus should be on the participants, as the interview is about them, not you or the organization. She discussed how to research the cultural history of a community before taking on a project and avoiding exploiting your subjects and understanding many may have underlying trauma from their past, such as many immigrant stories. She discussed how the epigenetics of trauma have been documented and that families can pass down trauma between generations. Dr. Sumpter emphasized the importance of not reacting to a narrator’s story of trauma. Do not be shocked, remain calm, and give no reaction that will interrupt or alter the mood of the interview. She shared several stories from her oral history project, The Ghosts Are Dying Stories from the Gullah Geechee Elders, and they were both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. You can view her works at her website https://www.altheasumpter.com/index.html.

Managing Scope, Scale, and Growth in an Oral History Project

This session was presented by Jonathan Coulis of Emory University and emphasized the planning phases of oral history projects. He had tips and warnings on how to manage the process so it doesn't become unmanageable. Some of the attendees shared that they had inherited archives of old oral histories taken in the 90's and were struggling to process them. The rest of us felt fortunate to be at the beginning phases of our projects and able to think the process through from start to finish. He emphasized the need for a roadmap to prevent from losing sight of the original purpose of the project and building in stages for growth. From an interviewing perspective, he suggested practicing so all interviewers were comfortable in their role and how to avoid the temptation of adding comments or affirming what the interviewee is saying. The interviewer needs to balance the act of listening but not responding either formally or informally through body language. At the same time, an interviewer needs to see where an interview may lead and compared it to tree branches that can grow in any direction. He discussed the benefits of doing “pilot” interviews to get a better idea of the direction interviews can take and to reflect and assess potential obstacles and if anything needs to be tweaked. He discussed the challenges and benefits of multi-year projects. Challenges can be deciding if it should continue, does the process need to change, securing resources, and should it remain a single project or multiple programs. The benefits ranged from building a reputation although this can take time, recognizing it as part of collection development, and building on a foundation that you started. He also warned against the dangers of “institutional creep,” which are demands or requests by the stakeholders that do not fit the scope or purpose the project.

Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Understanding the potential and risk of oral history online

This session was a little more technical in perspective than I anticipated and on a more academic level. However, I did get some useful information from it besides learning about the scope of the UGA Special Collections oral history program. It appears that UGA and University of Kentucky have jointly created a product called OHMS (Oral History Metadata Synchronizer) that allows for ease of searching within and across collections using metadata within the audio and video files. Following this portion of the session, it focused on the risk of putting oral histories online and publicly accessible. He warned of interviewees sharing too much personal information. He provided an example of how a person went on a date and the other person knew all about her from her oral history she had given (creepy!). There were also some high profile cases of federal and international laws being broken by what was shared in an interview. There was a situation where Boston College had done a project on the IRA and the identity of the participants had to be turned over and they were charged and jailed. He also cautioned against the potential for libelous, slanderous, or culturally insensitive language being used in an interview. Although these examples may be few and far between, it definitely needs to be considered before undertaking any interviews.

The We Love Buford Highway Oral History Project: How We Did it and How You Can too!

We Love Buford Highway is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting multicultural immigrant communities along Buford Highway just north of Atlanta. They recently decided to undertake an oral history project, collecting stories from people with a connection to Buford Highway, and they discussed the aspects of a beginner project. While I feel I am not a beginner, the topic of their oral history project had many parallels to our upcoming Community Web project. It is important to appropriately respect, dignify, and celebrate the narrators’ cultures and stories. To gather the stories, they develop relationships with shopkeepers, restauranteurs, community activists, newly-settled refugees, and neighbors. They translate their marketing materials into many different languages, and they try to incorporate young people to build a connection to the community and hopefully encourage them to stay or come back. It’s important that the narrators’ understand that the information they share will be accessible to the public, and they are careful not to make the narrators feel exploited. Personal questions lead to deep memories, which can make a powerful interview, but sensitive information can lead to unanticipated consequences. One thing WLBH does that I thought would be fun is referred to as “placemaking.” They post QR codes in specific locations along Buford Highway which bring up clips from interviews about that location and stories about how that spot is meaningful to someone. I thought that would be a great addition to our Community Web project! I also got excited about the idea of conducting interviews in other languages, particularly since we are focusing on the Indian American community.

I've Hit Record, Now What" Tips & Techniques for Great Interviewing

This session was presented by an engaging StoryCorp member, Daniel Horowitz Garcia. After a brief introduction and asking what we wanted to know, he started us off with an interviewing exercise with one another to reflect on how it felt to both interview and be interviewed. He stated that like many things, there is no right way to interview. 90% of the time should be spent on planning the project and then the interviews happen.  He discussed the process in three main parts – Preparation: Before the Interview, Be Ready: During the Interview, and It's Not Over Until It's Over: Post Interview. Throughout he touched on some of the questions everyone had at the beginning of the session, such as how to handle interviewees who talk too much or too little, how to handle awkward silences, and post processing. He emphasized letting the story take you where it leads you, as that is usually where the "good stuff" happens but not to force it. If someone makes an intriguing comment but does not want to expound or discuss it further, do not push them. Have “back pocket questions” ready to keep things going, such as "tell me more" or "how did that make you feel". Getting to a reflection point in the interview brings deeper meaning to the conversation.

Our biggest takeaway from the entire day was the importance of a pre-interview meeting, which came up in every session we attended. It helps to ensure those participating understand the full purpose and scope of the project and the expectations of the interview and to provide them a chance to consider what they wish to share (or not share), and for respecting their opening up of their personal lives to the community.