Week 1: January 16-21
WELCOME!
Syllabus & Course Sneak Preview
* Review: Please watch the short welcome presentation and course sneak preview, link provided via email and on Blackboard.
Introductions (on Slack, by Tuesday, January 23)
* Please accept my invitation to our Slack space (I will send you the invitation by Tuesday, August 22).
* Please introduce yourself on Slack and share a photo or something else that tells us a little bit about yourself!
DUE (by Tuesday, January 23)
* Please respond to the short survey about technology and your specific interests that I will email you.
Week 2: January 22-28
Oral History & Public History
How did oral history evolve as a historical practice and genre? How does it fit in the context of academic history on the one hand, and public history on the other? What does it mean to “share historical authority”? How is it relevant for our course focusing on the digital past?
Please review (by Monday, January 29)
* My short presentation on oral history and public history (link distributed via email, Slack, and Blackboard) ~ 10 minutes
1. Linda Shopes, “What is Oral History?” From: History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web (2002), http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/oral.pdf, pages 1-5.
2.“’Working’ Then and Now: Studs Terkel’s Book Interviews Resurface as Audio,” NPR Weekend edition, September 25, 2016 (5 minute listen, includes transcript), https://www.npr.org/2016/09/25/494740720/working-then-and-now-studs-terkels-book-interviews-resurface-as-audio
Option 1: “Teenage Telephone Operator Reveals Loneliness In Terkel’s ‘Working’,” NPR, All Things Considered, September 27, 2016 (5 minute listen, includes transcript), https://www.npr.org/2016/09/27/495671371/teenage-telephone-operator-reveals-loneliness-in-terkels-working
Option 2: Interview about dust storms in Oklahoma, Shafter FSA Camp, August 5, 1940, Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Workers Collection (AFC 1985/001), Library of Congress (4:31 minutes) http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afcts.4120a1
Option 3: ‘I Didn’t Plan To Be A Union Guy’, ‘Working’ Then And Now, All Things Considered, NPR, Sept. 29, 2016, https://www.npr.org/2016/09/29/495916035/working-then-and-now-i-didnt-plan-to-be-a-union-guy
Discussions on Slack (by January 29)
* Virtual field trip: This week, we’ll take a trip to an online historical resource and discuss our experiences on Slack. I will distribute a list of optional websites for your review and will also provide you with discussion questions. You may also choose your own site or resource for your field trip.
* Discussion of readings/audio recordings on Slack. I’ll share detailed instructions via email.
Week 3: January 29-February 4
Oral History and Technology, part 1: The development of field recording and oral history from phonograph cylinders to digital audio and video recorders
How has technology shaped the development of field recording and oral history? What has been the impact of digital media technology on the practice and genre of oral history? How has digital technology affected the preservation and accessibility of analog recordings?
Please review (by February 5)
* My short presentation on oral history and technology, part 1 (link distributed via email, Slack, and Blackboard) ~ 10 minutes
1. Listen to: “Story Corps and Stetson Kennedy,” NPR Talk of the Nation, May 23, 2005 (9 minutes, includes transcript), https://www.npr.org/transcripts/4663544
2. “Shove It Over”(vocals) performed by Zora Neale Hurston at Federal Music Project Office, Jacksonville, Florida, on June 18, 1939. Herbert Halpert 1939 Southern States Recording Expedition (AFC 1939/005) (2:47 minutes), https://www.loc.gov/item/flwpa000006/
3. “Throwback on a Comeback: The Last Cassette Tape Factory,” Great Big Story Podcast (2016), You Tube (3:13 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ81-TMP4pI
4. Gerald Zahavi, “Notes from the Field: Digital History and Oral History,” Oral History and Digital Humanities, ed. by Douglas Boyd and Mary Larson (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), pp. 119-132. (I will distribute this article via email and on Blackboard)
Please also take a look at:
5. Timeline of the recorded sound industry, National Recording Preservation Plan, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/programs/national-recording-preservation-plan/tools-and-resources/history/timeline/
6. History of sound recording, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_sound_recording
Discussions on Slack (by February 5)
* Stories and reflections about analog media
DUE (by February 5)
📝 QUIZ 1
DUE (in two weeks, by February 12)
* Blog setup: Please install your blog, write an “about” paragraph, and share a photo or something else you’d like to share. I will provide you with detailed step-by-step guidelines for the installation of your blogs.
Week 4: February 5-11
Oral History and Technology, part 2: The development of field recording and oral history from phonograph cylinders to digital audio and video recorders
How has technology shaped the development of field recording and oral history? What has been the impact of digital media technology on the practice and genre of oral history? How has digital technology affected the preservation and accessibility of analog recordings?
Please review (by February 12)
* My short presentation on oral history and technology, part 2 (link distributed via email, Slack, and Blackboard) – ~ 10 minutes
1. How are vinyl records made? A look inside Oregon’s first record pressing facility, The Oregonian, April 12, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dbqzx0tUnPM
2. Doug Boyd, “Achieving the Promise of Oral History in a Digital Age,” Oxford Handbook of Oral History, ed. by Donald Ritchie (Oxford: Oxford University Press: 2010), pp. 285-302. (Distributed in class.)
3. Passamaquoddy song of the Snake Dance,Jesse Walter Fewkes collection of Passamaquoddy cylinder recordings, recorded in Calais, Maine on March 15, 1890 by Jesse Walter Fewkes, Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2015655575/
4. Personal Digital Archiving: An Introduction (New City Library, Aug 8, 2014), https://guides.rcls.org/personaldigitalarchiving
5. We’ll also discuss a few personal digital archiving guidelines and toolkits, including:
* Digital Archiving Research Guide: https://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=992751
(This is one of the best and most recent guides on digital personal archiving from the University of Michigan Libraries based on the principles: Select; Gather; Organize; Backup; Maintain)
Discussions on Slack (by February 12)
* Personal digital archiving – how can we ensure that we don’t lose our most valued and important files?
DUE (by February 12)
* Blog setup: Please install your blog, write an “about” paragraph, and share a photo or something else you’d like to share. I will provide you with detailed step-by-step guidelines for the installation of your blogs.
DUE (by February 19 or sooner)
* Blog post 1: Oral history interview analysis and discussion (I will provide you with a list of optional sources you can analyze and guidelines)
Week 5: February 12-18
Navigating the Internet & Discovering and Evaluating Online Sources
How do we find reliable primary and secondary sources online, including for our final project? How do you evaluate the reliability of online sources? What is metadata and how can we use it effectively for the discovery of materials? How do search engines work and how do they control our lives?
Please review (by February 19)
* My short presentation on navigating the Internet and discovering and evaluating online sources (link distributed via email, Slack, and Blackboard) – ~ 10 minutes
1. Evaluating Internet Resources, Georgetown University Library, https://www.library.georgetown.edu/tutorials/research-guides/evaluating-internet-content
2. How Google search works: https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/
3. Interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan (The Googlization of Everything), University of California Press Podcast, Feb. 17, 2011, available on Soundcloud (16:08 min), https://soundcloud.com/uc-press/podcast-interview-of-siva-vaidhyanathan-author-of-the-googlization-of-everything-available-now
4. Jason Steinhauer, Can an Oral History be Fake News? Hindsights, November 3, 2017, https://medium.com/hindsights/can-an-oral-history-be-fake-news-70864d5a10cf
5. “Technologies To Create Fake Audio And Video Are Quickly Evolving,” NPR, April 2, 2018 (3 minute listen), https://www.npr.org/2018/04/02/598916380/technologies-to-create-fake-audio-and-video-are-quickly-evolving
DUE (by February 19)
* Blog post 1: Oral history interview analysis and discussion (I will provide you with a list of optional sources you can analyze and guidelines)
DUE (by February 26)
📝 QUIZ 2
Discussions on Slack (by February 19)
* Student-led discussionof readings/audio and video recordings on Slack.
Week 6: February 19-25
Copyrights & Fair Use
Evaluating copyrights and fair use, locating online sources and artwork, including music and photographs, licensed under Creative Commons.
Please review (by February 26)
1. Aaron McCullough, Copyright Basics, George Mason University Publishing Group, March 7, 2018, https://publishing.gmu.edu/communication/copyright/copyright-basics/
2. “A brief history of why artists are no longer making a living making music,” Ian Tamblyn, Roots Music Canada, March 14, 2019, https://www.rootsmusic.ca/2019/03/14/a-brief-history-of-why-artists-are-no-longer-making-a-living-making-music/
3. “Pioneering punk label Dischord Records put entire catalogue online free,” Far Out, May 3, 2020, https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/dischord-records-punk-bandcamp-free/
DUE (by February 26)
📝 QUIZ 2
Discussions on Slack (by February 26)
* Copyrights & fair use
* Making art & making a living
Week 7: February 26-March 3
Online Ethics: Privacy, informational self-determination, and the protection of culturally sensitive materials
What are the major ethical implications of doing oral history online, and how do the principles of informational self-determination and informed consent play out in an online environment? What are the major privacy issues in an online environment and how can we protect our own privacy? How can ethical stewardship of culturally sensitive materials be implemented in a digital environment?
Please review (by March 4)
* “How to Protect Your Digital Privacy,” The New York Times, The Privacy Project, https://www.nytimes.com/guides/privacy-project/how-to-protect-your-digital-privacy
* Please take a look at the internet and data privacy guide, Pratt Institute Libraries, https://libguides.pratt.edu/internet-data-privacy/introduction-internet-privacy
* Mukurtu Archive, “About” page: http://www.mukurtuarchive.org/about
* “Repatriating” Indigenous Digital Heritage: The Rise of Traditional Knowledge (TK) Labels and Licenses, American University Intellectual Property Brief, February 28, 2022, http://www.ipbrief.net/2022/02/28/repatriating-indigenous-digital-heritage-the-rise-of-traditional-knowledge-tk-labels-and-licenses/
Discussions on Slack (by March 4)
* Online privacy exercise
DUE (by March 4)
📝 QUIZ 3
Week 8: March 4-10
Spring break!
Week 9: March 11-17
Interviewing remotely and podcast production
While you may not do your own remote oral history interview as part of the coursework, there will be – most likely – situations where you will have to facilitate or participate in other types of remote interviews in in the near future, including in job interviews. So, this week, we’ll go over a few general guidelines on remote interviewing, and will also discuss writing for podcasts and podcast production.
Please review (by March 18)
* Oral History at Home, Five East Steps, Smithsonian Institution (very short film, 02:15 minutes), Smithsonian Institution, 2020: https://siarchives.si.edu/history/how-do-oral-history
* Writing for Podcasts: My interview with Roger Mellen, April 17, 2020, https://hist390-kh.org/podcast/writing-for-podcasts-interview-with-roger-mellen-part-1/
Length: 9:21
Please also review/skim (especially if you’re planning to produce a podcast):
* NPR: Starting Your Podcast: A Guide for Students, November 2018: https://www.npr.org/2018/11/15/662070097/starting-your-podcast-a-guide-for-students
* 2-page summary: Oral History at a Distance: Conducting Remote Interviews Webinar, pdf downloadable from: https://www.oralhistory.org/2020/03/26/webinar-oral-history-at-a-distance-conducting-remote-interviews/
* How to hook your podcast audience, NPR Training, March 27, 2017, https://training.npr.org/2017/03/27/how-to-hook-your-podcast-audience/
Guest speaker:
📝 DUE (by March 18)
* Blog post 2: Podcast or online exhibition review and discussion (I will provide you with a list of optional podcasts or exhibitions you can analyze and guidelines
DUE (by March 18)
* Final project initial proposal (survey response) via email
Week 10: March 18-24
Final project preparation and recap week, part 1: Primary source research and analysis; final project discussion, skills & tools discussion, copyrights & ethics recap.
DUE (by March 25)
* Final project annotated bibliographies
* Final project about paragraph (please share on Slack)
🧰 Skills & tools exercise, option 1 (recommended)
* Install Zotero and export your draft bibliography
(Step-by-step instructions provided)
Discussions on Slack (by March 25)
* Student-led discussionof readings/audio and video recordings on Slack.
Week 11: March 25-31
Doing digital history in public, connecting with communities
What are the opportunities and challenges of doing public history in a digital environment? How can oral history be used most effectively in community engagement and collaborative projects? What are the benefits, what are the challenges of rapid response collecting?
Reading: Mark Tebeau, A Journal of the Plague Year: Rapid-Response Archiving Meets the Pandemic, Collections: A Journal for Museum and Archives Professionals 17:3 (2021): 199–206.
Discussions on Slack (by April 1)
* Student-led discussionwith guest speakers on Slack.
DUE (by April 1)
* Final project revised bibliographies and outline
Week 12: April 1-7
Online Access and Ethics: Accessibility and Digital Inequalities
Please review (by April 8)
1. Virginia Association of Counties, “Virginia releases draft proposal to achieve universal broadband access with $1.48 billion in federally allocated funds,” September 8, 2023, https://www.vaco.org/county-connections/virginia-releases-draft-proposal-to-achieve-universal-broadband-access-with-1-48-billion-in-federally-allocated-funds-comments-due-by-september-19/
2. Alexander Marre, “COVID-19 Remote Learning Exposes the Digital Divide,” Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Regional Matters, March 25, 2021, https://www.richmondfed.org/region_communities/regional_data_analysis/regional_matters/2021/rm_03_25_21_broadband
3. “Native Americans Long ‘Left Out’ From Broadband Push For Equity,” Bloomberg Government, October 25, 2022, https://about.bgov.com/news/native-americans-long-left-out-from-broadband-push-for-equity/
4. Tom Allison, “A Closer Look at Virginia’s Digital Divide in Education,” SCHEV Insights, September 2020, https://www.luminafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/digital-dividefinal.pdf
5. Stories of Web Users, W3C, Web Accessibility Initiative,
https://www.w3.org/WAI/people-use-web/user-stories/
Discussions on Slack (by April 8)
* Student-led discussionon Slack.
* FINAL PROJECT DRAFT (recommended)
Week 13: April 8-14
Final project preparation and recap week, part 2: Primary source research and analysis; final project discussion, copyrights & ethics.
DUE (by April 15)
* FINAL PROJECT DRAFT (recommended)
* Skills & Tools exercises (recommended)
Discussions on Slack (by April 15)
* Student-led discussion of readings/audio and video recordings on Slack.
Week 14: April 15-21
DUE (by April 22)
* FINAL PROJECT DRAFT
* Skills & Tools exercises
* Final project draft presentations & discussion, wrap-up!!
Week 15: April 22-28
Last week of classes!
🥳 🎈 🌸🌷🌼 Virtual social gathering 🌸🌷🌼 🎈 🥳
* Final project draft presentations & discussion, wrap-up!!
DUE (by May 3):
* Skills & Tools exercises
*FINAL PROJECT (DUE May 3-6)
Final projects due: May 3-6
Syllabus credits
This course’s structure and assignments are inspired by and based on syllabi from other HIST 390 instructors, especially from Professors Mills Kelly, Abby Mullen, Mike O’Malley and Stephen Robertson, Sharon Leon, as well as from oral history courses taught by Linda Shopes, Rachel Gelfand, Dan Whitman, among others. Roy Rosenzweig’s pioneering Clio Wired courses continue to be an inspiration for doing digital history, inside and outside the classroom. I thank my History 390 colleagues Abby Mullen, Mills Kelly, Stephen Robertson, Lincoln Mullen, and Nate Sleeter, my Teaching Square colleagues Jennifer Ashley, Robin Ericson, Sanja Avramovic, and the Stearns Center staff for inspiration and support for online teaching, and my TAs and colleagues Laura Crossley and Corinne Wilkinson. Thanks to Ed Lyman for the soundtrack (and more). Netiquette adapted from Rebecca Barrett-Fox.
License: Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Version: January 15, 2024
