Oral History Paper

For me utilizing oral history to further promote social justice and activism is a key goal. Each of the reading for today highlight the need for engaged forms of oral history. Although each of the pieces for today differ in tone, style, and methodology all encourage the need for multifaceted, dynamic and multipurpose oral histories. The Lovell and Lutz article provided commentary on Stoll’s disclaims on Menchu’s oral history. Lovell and Lutz find that Stoll’s study was childish and distracts from the deeper meaning of the oppression and prosecution of Guatemalans. I personally enjoyed their paralleling of Menchu’s story to historical documents and found that to be a useful way for comparing historical and modern subjective documents. If my interviewee allows this/is relevant to what develops I would love to bring in historical documents to emphasize themes and meaning.
The Janesick article traced the history of oral history in its various forms and pointed out the reasons for completing oral history in a postmodern fashion. I found the Janesick article to be helpful for providing background knowledge but did little to introduce new methodologies or promote social justice in oral history. Janesick provided a single example of social justice history and was at the end of her article, I would have benefited more if her article …show more content…
From start to finish the Benmayor research team emphasized collaboration and the need to have strong repertoire with interviewees. Benmayor’s ability to directly communicate the value of patience, gaining an insiders perspective and collaboration in order to spark positive social change has been refreshing compared to the theory dense readings in previous weeks. The reading from this week have refueled my desire to create an oral history that breaks down misleading representations and empowering my