SDSU Interview and Transcript Oral History Project Worksheet

Description

Introduction

Oral History Project – Interview and Transcript Assignment Sheet Requirements

Project Learning Objectives

Goals of the entirety of the project:

Study the life of at least one womxn

[1]

in your family (biological, adoptive, extended, or chosen).
Learn oral history and interviewing techniques and historical methods. This project is not a genealogy project.
Connect the experiences of this one womxn to broader historical forces and contexts.
Understand your own connection to history.
Write a creative paper, rooted in the historical evidence, which integrates the interviews and library research.

Getting Organized

Components of the Project

Part A: Learn about oral history research methods and techniques and interview one womxn in your family or chosen family or community. (Notes do not need to be turned in, but you should plan time for this interview in your schedule).
Part B: Interview transcriptions – should be at least three pages double-spaced. (You will turn in the transcription of your interview).

Student Guide Part A

Assignment Part A:

As a budding historian, your goal is to learn as much as possible about your subject: the details of their daily life, any dreams, hopes, struggles, stories, and contributions. Use the reading assignment this week, “The Female Life Cycle,” to give you an understanding of how womxn’s lives in the past were constructed.

Some tips and techniques you should consider:

Record your interview. This will better help you to let the interview flow naturally without you needing to ask the subject to repeat themselves while you are jotting down notes.
Ask open-ended questions. If you ask questions that would simply elicit a yes or no response, you would not get the amount of material needed to write a lengthy paper.
Feel free to improvise during the interview and follow new lines of thought of your subject.
Try to remain neutral; do not impose your own views on your subject. Listen with empathy and non-judgmentally. Your position is to listen and learn. Be sensitive to how your subject describes the forces that have shaped her life.
If the relative you are interviewing does not want to answer the questions you are asking, I would suggest

strongly

choosing a different relative to interview. Again, you have to have enough material to write a lengthy paper, and short and incomplete answers will not give you this.

Some

requirements

of the interview:

Learn about each womxn?s ethnicity, nationality, race, country of origin, migration history, religion, class background, education, work history, language(s), etc. and approximate dates of birth and death.
Make sure to record the interviewee?s name, relationship to yourself, country of origin, race/ethnicity, age, etc. at the top of your interview notes.
Identify the issues, moments, emotions, and events that your subject finds most significant, and explore why this is the case. You want to learn about the stories and events that are most important to the womxn you are interviewing.

Interview Questions

Bring these questions with you to your interview and ask your subject the following questions (not necessarily in this order or with these exact words). You should also develop and ask additional questions that are of interest to you or questions that are relevant to the life of the womxn you are interviewing – develop

at least 3-5 unique questions

. These unique questions can also be improvised during the interview as the interview leads you.

How would you describe yourself when you were a child?
How would you describe your family of origin (the family you grew up in)? What were your relationships like with parents/caretakers, and siblings?
How did those family relationships affect your life?
What was your attitude toward school? How would you describe your education?
Were family members supportive of education for girls in the family? Did all of the children in the family receive the same kinds of education? If not, why?
What do you remember about times of struggle, or obstacles that you faced as a child? What about as a teenager? As an adult? What were your greatest opportunities?
What were your hopes and dreams when you were young? Did those hopes and dreams change as you became an adult? How/why?
What is your daily life like now? How do you spend your time? What are your priorities in life? Your goals?
Did you have children, and if so, what has motherhood been like for you? What kinds of support have you had from your family, friends, or others in the job of raising children?
What would you describe as some of the most memorable periods of your life?
Were there turning points in your life, in which it felt as if your life or thoughts moved in new directions? Describe.
In what ways have local, international, or national events?events outside the home and the family– affected your life personally?
Looking back into the past, what do you see as the most significant historical event in your own family?s history? In what ways was that event significant to womxn in your family? How did they respond or participate? (If your interviewee can?t think of any historical events, you might mention, depending on the family?s history, themes like immigration, war, political upheaval, economic depression, etc).
Is religion, spirituality, or faith significant to you, and if so, what role has it played in your life?
What kinds of work have you done over the years? What kinds of work have been most difficult? Most satisfying? Tell me a story about one of those times.
Who are the womxn you?ve most admired (either in the past or the present), and why? Have you tried to model yourself on them in any way?
Do you think that womxn have the same opportunities that men do in life? If not, what needs to change?
What do you see as some of your greatest contributions that you?ve made in your life so far? How has your life made a difference in world? What or who made it possible for you to make a difference?
What stories about their own lives did your mother or grandmother tell you? What values did they try to pass down to you?
What stories about your own life do you want to share with the next generation?

(Includes excerpts taken from Dr. Elizabeth Colwill?s ?Constructing Our Pasts? assignment)

Student Guide Part B

Assignment Part B:

Submit to Canvas as one document:

A typed list of the questions that you asked your interviewee and their responses to these questions, which includes your three original questions.
Your interview transcript should be at least three pages, double-spaced. (This should be relatively easy as you will be asking at least 23-25 questions.

If you follow these directions on this assignment sheet, you will receive full credit for the Interview and Transcript of the assignment.

As you are transcribing this interview, it is most helpful to record and then go back and type. If this is not possible for you to record, typing the responses may be easier for you as most people type faster than they write. If you miss a detail while you are taking notes, it is better to go back and clarify points after the fact rather than interrupting your subject or asking them to wait while you complete your notes.

[1]

?The new modification in spelling of the word ?womxn? is finished in an endeavor to stress the concept that womxn are their own separate individuals, capable of operational on their own and without a man to help them. The new orthography is additionally seen as intersectional, because it is supposed to incorporate transgender womxn, womxn of color, womxn from Third World countries, and each different self distinguishing womxn out there.? Natalia Emmanuel, “Why I Choose to Identify As a Womxn,”

Her Campus

, April 16, 2017,

https://www.hercampus.com/school/washington/why-i-choose-identify-womxn (Links to an external site.)

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