Tag: #boxlogic

General Notes

At this point in research, my goal seems to be a “thinning” of the box content. But, while some elimination of less-relevant sources did happen, I also added a few sources, some referenced in Erin Anderson’s The Olive Project and others from a more general search for oral history information on Gardner-Webb’s online library resources. Mary Marshall Clark’s “Oral History” offers an excellent overview of the genre and its history.

The oral histories I’m going to focus on are the New American Story Project and the “Arab Refugee Oral History” archives. These two archives have a similar purpose of telling the stories of those who have recently arrived in the US. While others, like the Ellis Island collection, do as well, these are interesting collections for their currency and for their differing sources. NASP is a nonprofit speaking to current culture. “AROH” is a project completed by students at Duke University.

Refined Works Cited

Anderson, Erin A. The Olive Project. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, vol. 15, no. 2, 2011, kairos.technorhetoric.net/15.2/topoi/anderson/index.html.

• Background page: “my process seeks to illuminate the inevitable, irreconcilable gap between a life lived and a life narrated.”
• Background page: “This project is grounded in a central understanding of oral history as a co-constructed process of narrative composition.”
• The multimodal example of an oral history is intriguing. Anderson uses video, audio, images, and writing in combination.

“Arab Refugee Oral History.” Humanities Writ Large, Duke: Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, 2019, 
humanitieswritlarge.duke.edu/projects/arab-refugee-oral-history.

• The variety of stories here keep a listener clicking. They are all audio recordings. Some are from first-generation immigrants and refugees, and other recordings are from people who have lived in the US for years or for all their lives. Interviewees are of Middle-Eastern descent and are sharing their experiences.
• Transcripts are provided, and the few interviews that are in Arabic are translated.
• The oral histories are collected by students as part of service-learning projects for courses at Duke. Looking a little deeper into the website, I found that there are also oral history collections related to other backgrounds represented around Duke and in Durham.

Clark, Mary Marshall. “Oral History.” Encyclopedia of Life Writing: Autobiographical and Biographical Forms, edited by Margaretta Jolly, Routledge, 1st ed., 2001. Credo Reference, ezproxy.gardner-webb.edu/login?url=https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/routlifewrite/oral_history/0?institutionId=5562.

• ” Oral history is a practice of collecting, preserving and interpreting information about the past through the study of both individual and social experiences in story form. It is distinctive from ethnography, where the focus is on writing about the culture of a contemporary community from the investigator’s point of view. While oral history, as a life-writing genre, borrows from autobiography, it is centered on the collision between autobiography and biography, representing at least two perspectives on history, and yielding many more.”
• “Debates have focused on five themes: truth and bias, particularly in the early days in which personal memory was often seen by traditional “document-based” historians as an unreliable form of historical “evidence”; the interviewer-interviewee relationship; the method’s usefulness for representing minority or hitherto unheard constituencies; individual versus collective memories and voices; and lastly, as stated above, the tension between oral and written forms.”
• “For the first few decades of its development, oral history was largely identified with the creation of archives, through the work of social historians and others who were concerned with documenting the history of those whose lives might otherwise remain unrecorded. This was particularly true in the England and the United States where the excitement about oral history reflected the passions of popular culture as well as a desire to create an intergenerational record.”
• “oral history to be used to document history that would otherwise go unrecorded, and simultaneously began to develop a methodology that would lend historical validity to oral history as empirically verifiable data.”
• “By the late 1970s oral history was identified as an almost exclusively archival practice, with programmes in many parts of the world, but notably in Latin America and the United States.”
• “United States’ historian Barbara Tuchman declared that “oral history gathered trash and trivia with all the discrimination of a vacuum cleaner”.
• “incredible diversity of subject matter, political opinion, and literary form that characterizes oral history “

Featherstone, Mark. “Archive.” Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 23, no. 2-3, 2006, pp. 591–596, doi:10.1177/0263276406023002106.

• “Increasingly the boundaries between the archive and everyday life become blurred through digital recording and storage technologies” (591).
• “it was possible to ‘tell history as it was’ through careful scrutiny of the treasure-house of material from the past, accumulated in the archive awaiting the historian’s gaze to bring it to life” (592).
• “It offers the delights of discovering records and truths that have been hidden or lost, of resurrecting the past” (593).
• “the archive cannot provide a direct access to the past, but only a textual refiguring of it. The archive fever is the attempt to return to the lived origin, to the everyday experience which are the sources of our distorted and refracted memories whose transience and forgetting makes us uneasy” (596).

Featherstone, Mark. “Archiving Cultures.” British Journal of Sociology, vol. 51, no. 1, London School of Economics, 2000, pp. 161–184, doi-org.ezproxy.gardner-webb.edu/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2000.00161.x.

• “Archive reason is a kind of reason which is concerned with detail, it constantly directs us away from the big generalization, down into the particularity and singularity of the event. Increasingly the focus has shifted from archiving the lives of the good and the great down to the detail of mundane everyday life” (161).
• “the new electronic archives will not only change the form in which culture is produced and recorded, but the wider conditions under which it is enacted and lived as well” (161).
• “The archive is the site for the accumulation of primary sources from which history is constructed” (168).
• “The archive fever is to attempt to return to the lived origin, the everyday experience, which is the source of the imperfect and distorted memories which are our archives and whose transience and forgetting makes us uncomfortable (Derrida 1996: 92)” (170).

Gane, Nicholas and David Beer. “Archive.” New Media: The Key Concepts, Berg, 2008, pp. 71-86.

• “archiving is related to yet clearly distinct from history. Whereas archives gather and record data, history sketches out narratives and links together selected parts of the archive into what might be called knowledge” (83).

Gluck, Sherna Berger, et al. “Reflections on Oral History in the New Millennium: Roundtable Comments.” The Oral History Review, vol. 26, no. 2, 1999, pp. 1–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3675587.

• “Oral history has always been formed by interaction and change. Oral memoirs pivot upon a unique interaction between historian and historymaker. Changing or redefining the subject of history-~integrating the actions, experiences, and ideas of “ordinary” women and men-is crucial to the attraction of oral history. And the promise of oral history goes further, seeking to transform the relationship between historian and audience, looking for ways to make study of history more accessible, more engaging, and ultimately more participatory. For inherent to oral history are the democratic notions that everyone can be a historian; that memory is in itself a meaningful form of historical interpretation; and that, through oral history projects, students and others can make a meaningful contribution to our understanding of the past” (16-17).
• “The oral quality of oral memoirs is, in many ways, essential to their meaning. In conversations and in interviews, we convey meaning with pitch and tone of voice, giving cues both subtle and obvious to our listeners. Pacing and pauses, volume and inflection, pronunciation of words and sounds that are not even words-coughs, sighs, exhalations, and moans-all give nuance and depth to the choice of words themselves. Some speakers are almost singers, playing their voices as instruments. Transcription, no matter how skillful, inevitably flattens the spoken quality of oral memoirs. Reading a transcript and listening to the interview are vastly different experiences. While not the same as witnessing the original interview, listening to a recording connects us to the speaker both affectively and cognitively, facilitating empathy and deepening our understanding” (21).

Hannoum, Abdelmajid. ” Paul Ricoeur On Memory.” Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 22, no. 6, SAGE, 2005, 123-137, doi: 10.1177/0263276405059418.

• “one does not just remember, but one rather remembers something. There is hence memory as an aim (visée) (act and action) and remembrance as the thing aimed at (le souvenir comme chose visée)” (125).
• “Narratives are made of recollection and of forgetfulness” (126).
• “But as narratives they are constructed, and as such this construction is motivated and oriented, not only by truth, but by good. This is to say that morality regulates narratives of memory” (127).

Maas, Winy, et al. Information Is Alive: Art And Theory On Archiving And Retrieving Data. NAi Publishers, 2006.

• Supposedly the book was delivered yesterday, but it wasn’t in my mailbox. I’m waiting to hear from my landlords that live above me to see if they had it delivered to their door.

New American Story Project. 2019, newamericanstoryproject.org.

• “We want you to see them—refugees in our community—and ask, ‘Who are they? Why are they here? What are their stories? How can I support immigrants in my own community?'”
• “We believe that stories have the power to illuminate, to educate, and to increase empathy. Stories create change.”

Ochs, Elinor, and Lisa Capps. “Narrating the Self.” Annual Review of Anthropology, vol. 25, 1996, pp. 19–43. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2155816.

• “Across cultures, narrative emerges early in communicative development and is a fundamental means of making sense of experience. Narrative and self are inseparable in that narrative is simultaneously born out of experience and gives shape to experience. Narrative activity provides tellers with an opportunity to impose order on otherwise disconnected events, and to create continuity between past, present, and imagined worlds. Narrative also interfaces self and society, constituting a crucial resource for socializing emotions, attitudes, and identities, developing interpersonal relationships, and constituting membership in a community” (19).
• “Narratives are not usually monomodal, but rather they integrate two or more communicative modes. Visual representation, gesture, facial expression, and physical activity, for example, can be combined with talk, song, or writing to convey a tale” (20).
• “Narrative mediates this involvement. Personal narratives shape how we attend to and feel about events. They are partial representations and evocations of the world as we know it” (21).

Oral History Association. 2019, http://www.oralhistory.org.

• The “OHA Statement on Diversity and Inclusivity” addresses the ideas of the two oral history archives I’m going to be focusing on for this Box Logic.
• There are other potential resources on this site related to best practices, etc. that might be useful, too.

General Notes:

• I briefly returned to the “Box Logic” essay in Writing New Media and determined that, while still a fascinating article, it won’t be a source I’ll return to for this oral history/archive Box Logic.
• I haven’t had a chance to read all of the articles listen below in their entirety but have read enough to know that most or all of them will be useful moving forward. As I consider a focus for this Box Logic, I’m especially interested in the current collections of oral histories as a means for communicating both recent events through people’s stories. It’s still a broad topic, but I think likely I’ll narrow my focus on one or two archives of oral histories and then see what the theorists and academics below have to say in relation to those oral history collections.

Additional Resources:

Gane, Nicholas and David Beer. “Archive.” New Media: The Key Concepts, Berg, 2008, pp. 71-86.

The sources references in the “Archive” chapter of New Media: The Key Concepts, as well as the “Annotated Guide to Further Reading” and the “Bibliography” provided academic resources for my work. The sources below are primarily from those references or from references I found as a result of researching those references. The chapter itself offers a great over

Story Corps. Story Corps, Inc. 2019, https://storycorps.org/.

A friend recommended these stories as another layer of examples to consider in the world of oral histories. As with many oral history archives that I’m finding, the goal is giving voice to those stories that might otherwise not be heard. Diversity, representation, advocacy, respect, and preservation are themes I see developing both here and across many of the collections I’m finding. At this point, the New American Story Project is likely the collection I will focus on, but it’s still interesting to see the variety of what is out there.

Featherstone, Mark. “Archiving Cultures.” British Journal of Sociology, vol. 51, no. 1, London School of Economics, 2000, pp. 161–184, https://doi-org.ezproxy.gardner-webb.edu/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2000.00161.x.

“Archiving Cultures” considers what is involved as places and peoples are archived. How is a culture and a history respectfully archived? How does that preservation produce both permanency and change?

Featherstone, Mark. “Archive.” Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 23, no. 2-3, 2006, pp. 591–596, doi:10.1177/0263276406023002106.

Another piece by Featherstone, here he writes about the role of government in archive and how archive as a technology might vary the quality of the information as compared to traditional archives. Featherstone seems to be one of the primary voices on Archive, so his two pieces will be pieces I definitely read in detail.

Maas, Winy, et al. Information Is Alive: Art And Theory On Archiving And Retrieving Data. NAi Publishers, 2006.

Several essays referenced by Gane and Beer are in this anthology. I’ve ordered it on Interlibrary Loan, so hopefully I’ll be reading in it soon.

Hannoum, Abdelmajid. ” Paul Ricoeur On Memory.” Theory, Culture & Society, vol. 22, no. 6, SAGE, 2005, 123-137, DOI: 10.1177/0263276405059418.

This piece is a discussion and review of Ricoeur’s book, which has three sections “Of Memory and Reminiscence,” “History/Epistemology,” and “The Historical Condition.” Hannoum through Ricoeur considers theorists’ perspectives on memory and history and closes with considerations of memory’s manipulation, which then points to the importance of archive in the preservation of history.

Milner, Stephen J. “Partial Readings: Addressing a Renaissance Archive.” History of the Human Sciences, vol. 12, no. 2, 1999, pp. 89–105, doi:10.1177/09526959922120261.

Milner writes of the relationship between archive and history, looking at Renaissance Florence’s archive system and the modern means of archive.

Lynch, Michael. “Archives in formation: privileged spaces, popular archives and paper trails.” History of the Human Sciences, vol. 12, no. 2, 1999, pp. 65–87, doi:10.1177/09526959922120252.

Lynch addresses topics related to archive from Derrida’s theories to the official archives related to O. J. Simpson’s trial. I’m not sure that this source will be especially relevant to my Box Logic, but it has potential, so I’ll look more closely and decide.

Caygill, Howard. “Meno and the Internet: between memory and the archive.” History of the Human Sciences, vol. 12, no. 2, SAGE, 1999, pp. 1-11, https://doi-org.ezproxy.gardner-webb.edu/10.1177/095269519901200201.

Caygill considers the internet as a means of remembering through archive. This source may be a little too historical if I’m considering more current oral histories, but, as with a few of the other sources, I’ll read it for more context.

Starting Point

In October 2018, I first heard about the New American Story Project, an organization that focuses on telling stories of Central and South American immigrants primarily through oral histories. For this Box Logic, my goal is to figure out what oral histories are, how they’re being used to tell current stories, and, primarily, how they’re displayed and stored for access (Archive).

Preliminary Research

New American Story Project. 2019, newamericanstoryproject.org.

This website started it all. I’m especially intrigued by the interface of this website that makes it an interactive archive for conveying its information.

Oral History Association. 2019, http://www.oralhistory.org.

This OHA website and journal look like they will be excellent sources, especially to find what is current in this area. I can access most of the journal issues through the GWU library, and past newsletters are available on the website. This website also has links to the handful of universities that have oral history programs.

Gane, Nicholas and David Beer. “Archive.” New Media: The Key Concepts, Berg, 2008, pp. 71-86.

The “Archive” chapter will be my main focus; however, “Information” might also provide resources, so it may be added to my resource list later on.

Anderson, Erin A. The Olive Project. Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, vol. 15, no. 2, 2011.

Anderson’s The Olive Project is an example of an oral history from an academic perspective. She documents interviews with her mother and combines those interviews with pictures and videos. This journal may be a resource for more oral histories, which I’ll look into, and I’ll be reading more of her commentary on this project.

Baladi, Enab and The Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies. “Syrian Oral History Project.” The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, 2015, http://www.sitesofconscience.org.

From the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, this video of the “Syrian Oral History Project” combines oral histories from Syrian refugees, graphic art, and subtitles.

“Getting Started: What is Oral History.” History Matters, George Mason University, historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/what.html.

George Mason University’s “History Matters” considers definitions as well as a basic history of oral histories. It is a helpful starting point for potential research directions; for example, Allan Nevins is considered the first oral historian, though other collections of earlier oral histories are referenced.

“Oral Histories.” The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., 2019, http://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/oral-history-library.

The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation archives oral histories boasts almost 1900 interviews. An account is needed to access the histories, but it looks like I can do that if I decide to use this source moving forward. It’s interesting to consider this archive as a precursor to current refugee and immigrant oral histories.

“Oral History Section.” Society of American Activists, 2019,
www2.archivists.org/groups/oral-history-section.

Who knew there was a Society of American Archivists with an Oral History section? On this page, there is recent news related to oral histories, like the process of bringing them into the digital age.

“Refugee Oral History.” 2019, sites.google.com/view/refugee-oral-history-project/home.

The Refugee Oral History Project provides access to some of their histories at this point, but the idea behind this collection is interesting as it focuses on the histories of a specific area. It looks like I might be able to access more of them with a little following of links and references. Something about archive access comes to mind here.

“Arab Refugee Oral History.” Humanities Writ Large, Duke: Trinity College of Arts and Sciences, 2019,
humanitieswritlarge.duke.edu/projects/arab-refugee-oral-history.

“People Portraits by Duke Students: Iraq, Palestine, Sudan, and Syria.” Arabic Communities, Duke University, 2018, sites.duke.edu/arabiccommunities.

Both of the sources above connect to the Arab Refugee Oral History, a service-learning project that focused on oral histories of refugees. Duke has a page about the project, and then there is a WordPress for the project specifically.

Oral History Works. Columbia University: Oral History Master of Arts Program, 2015, http://www.oralhistoryworks.org.

Columbia’s Oral History MA program shares access to some of its work here. There is quite a variety of oral histories to look into.

Notes for Future Research

During Dr. Buckner’s archive introduction video, I wrote down some names and resources to look into. I haven’t yet. Beyond reading the “Archive” chapter in New Media Concepts, I haven’t looked into the particular theorists referenced in the chapter yet. Basically, while I’ve found examples of oral histories themselves, I need to dig into the archive area of this study. I also plan to reread the Box Logic essay now that I have this idea in mine.