Making Place through Archives and Oral Histories

This program starts with the premise that all places (e.g. a prairie, a street corner, a hiking path, a neighborhood, a school) are shaped by stories and histories of that place.

But who has access to what stories? What kind of histories are publicly preserved and recognized? How might we– as students, educators, activists, residents, descendants– contribute tomaking placethrough the study and/or creation of archives and oral histories?

This program includes:

*in-person visits to archives and cultural museums are dependent upon COVID rules of those institutions

• a conceptual and methodological introduction to historical research, with an emphasis on public archives and oral histories (and their limitations);

• visits to local and regional archives and cultural museums, with introductions to archived collections by archivists*;

• hands-on examinations of curated archival collections connected to student interests;

• investigations of digital oral history collections and use; and

• the opportunity to create a public history of a place using local, regional, and digital collections.