History 465 Oral History Paper Guidelines

One of the best ways to recover the history of how race and ethnicity has been lived and experienced in the United States is through the interview of a person and the analysis of his or her life story. In this paper, you must analyze a person’s life history in regards to how he or she has experienced race and ethnicity and/or immigrant experiences. This project helps you to understand how individuals have been shaped by, and in turn, have shaped, broader social, historical, cultural, and economic forces.

•  In this paper, you will interview someone at least one generation older than yourself (15+ years older) and ask key questions about his/her life history. You should conduct a half hour to hour-long interview. This person can be anyone: a family member, friend, co-worker, neighbor, etc.

• Then, in your final papers (7-9 pages, typed, double spaced, with footnotes) you must analyze their experiences within a broader historical framework by analyzing and contextualizing his/her experiences according to larger patterns and events. In your final papers, analyze how his/her life has been shaped by larger historical events, or how his/her life experiences have been different from other Americans during the same time period. Always remember to include how gender, sexuality, class, immigrant status, nationality, and religious affiliation also shape one’s racial and ethnic experiences.

• Papers will be graded on the ability to contextualize this person’s life story in terms of historical events and trends, quality of critical analysis, adequate contextualization, engaging and creative use of interview material, and clear, engaging, and polished writing.

• Draw on no less than five primary and secondary sources (outside of readings for this course) to contextualize and analyze this person’s life and experiences. These sources should be primary sources from the time period this person is discussing, and also academic works of history.

• In order to write the best paper, you must know the key events affecting others of your interviewee’s identity, gender, race/ethnicity and generation (i.e., immigration status, generational status, key events occurring when this person was at different stages of life such as wars and watershed events such as the Civil Rights movement, immigration exclusion laws, segregation and anti-miscegenation laws, etc.)

Category: Essays