Oral Histories of WOU
Since 2015 students in history courses including History 301: Introduction to Historical Research, History 408 Oral History, and History 410 Introduction to Public History have engaged in oral history interviews with faculty and staff at Western.
Our goal is to create a documentary record of what life and work at Western has been like for people in various positions with a variety of perspectives about the Western community. Students participate in the audio interview and also transcribe the questions into printed text.
Oral histories differ from other types of interviews because the transcription preserves the word-for-word conversation in its entirety. Both text and audio files are part of each interview posted. We believe that oral history as a research method gives voice to many people who make up Western's important history whose experiences might not otherwise be recorded.
