Oral History Project

The Oral History project is your chance to apply what you are learning about gender and communication in our course through praxis (the process of enacting or embodying theory), by using a method that has been of great importance to both the study of gender and the study of communication. Gender and communication scholars are interested in stories. They are interested in lived experience and how we narrate our experiences. They are interested in how these personal experiences connect to larger political, institutional, cultural, and social institutions. Oral histories are one way they study these intersections. 

This project will be completed over the course of the semester. It will have multiple steps and multiple, complementary, products. There will be a number of class periods that will serve as workdays throughout the semester.  Other readings and materials will prepare you along the way and additional guidance will be provided.

The two products of this project are:

  1. An audio/visual oral history (5-6 minute video or podcast about gender)
  2. An analysis and framing essay (5-6 pages with a minimum of 5 sources, 3 must be scholarly and peer-reviewed)

Along the way, you will complete and submit the following items, in order. Each item below is linked to further instructions, or minimal instructions are provided in parentheses.

  1. Selection of Interviewee and Interview Plan 2%
  2. Raw Interview File 2%
  3. Indexed or Transcribed Interview 3% (details on indexing and transcription are in your Oral History readings)
  4. Compositional Choices 3%
  5. A/V Project 15% (See samples below. Your finished product should be a five-to-six minute story using excerpts from the longer interview)
  6. Paper 15% (see samples below)

Password protected link to Dr. Waychoff’s samples of steps 2-4.

The entire project comprises 40% of the total grade

Sample Oral History Projects

Each video has a corresponding paper, linked in the description area of the video.