The Public History program has had numerous opportunities to work on oral historians and in the field of memory studies. This section presents individual student's work and class's project(s) as they pertaining to respective partner institutions and/or projects.
African American Community (Lufkin)
During the summer of 2012, Lufkin community leader Reverend Bettie Kennedy graciously agreed to work with graduate students enrolled in an SFA Public History graduate seminar on oral history taught by Dr. Paul J. P. Sandul by providing interviewees and support. The project also represents a unique opportunity for oral history to play a role in fostering a broader community identity for the Lufkin African American community in general and for all East Texas residents regardless of race. To hear the interviews, read transcripts, and learn more, go to the project hosted by the Center for Regional Heritage Research.African American Heritage Project (Nacogdoches)
The Nacogdoches African American Heritage Project (AAHP) began in 1988 as a collaborative project by the Center for East Texas Studies and the Department of History at SFASU and the Black Heritage Association of Nacogdoches. The AAHP received a Texas Oral History Association Community Award for its work in 2006. Since then it has continued to expand and grow and the oral history segment is now supported by the Center for Regional Heritage Research (CRHR). The project's archival materials relating to the project are housed at the East Texas Research Center.
- In Summer 1 2010 the AAHP graciously and excitingly agreed to work with graduate students enrolled in an SFA Public History graduate seminar on oral history taught by Dr. Paul J. P. Sandul by providing interviewees. The results are a rich history and cultural snapshot of African Americans in Nacogdoches specifically, and all of Nacogdoches generally. To hear the interviews, read transcripts, and learn more, go to the current oral history project on the CRHR website.
African American Education, Archives, and History Program (Dallas)
The African American Education Archives and History Program is a project of the African American Museum of Dallas. As a part of a collaborative effort from summer 2009 through summer 2013 between the African American Museum in Dallas, the Center for Regional Heritage Research, and the Department of History, History graduate assistants transcribed interviews conducted with educators and activists in Dallas County between 2004 and 2013. Dr. Beisel worked with the museum's Archives and Oral History Program committee to create develop a website using Omeka to make these primary sources available to the public. Special thanks go out to Dr. Alfred Roberts for his support and making this a successful collaboration. In April 2010, we received an award for this work.African American Museum Award, April 2010
Dr. Bobby H. Johnson Oral History Collection, ETRC
Housed in the East Texas Research Center, the Dr. Bobby H. Johnson Oral History Collection represents a career of historic research and tenacious interviewing by the former History Department Professor. Dr. Johnson's interviews have been an excellent collection to utilize as we introduce students to the successes and failures of interviewing and the transcribing process. The topics include World War One, the Great Depression, World War Two, Stephen F. Austin State University, the timber industry, East Texas, and the New London School Explosion. Please note that this collection includes over two hundred interviews and we have been transcribing a few more each year since Spring 2006.
- In Spring 2015 students in the HIS308 course transcribed 10 interviews and in Fall 2015 graduate students in HIS535 (both Introduction to Public History) transcribed 13 more interviews. We are making progress. It is certainly a learning experience, especially when faced with a topic about which the transcriber is not familiar as described in the reflective essays of Hayley Hasik and Shelby Winthrop.
- In Spring 2008 students in the combined graduate and undergraduate HIS535/HIS308 Introduction to Public History course transcribed interviews conducted in the 1990s by Dr. Bobby H. Johnson. This one is Oral History #440 with Mr. Blount, a Nacogdoches native. This is one example of the over 75 interviews we have transcribed. Dr. Johnson has conducted over a 1000 interviews during his career.
- In Summer 2007 graduate student Curtis Odom created lesson plans for 11th and 12th grade social studies classes based on Dr. Bobby H. Johnson's oral history interviews conducted with East Texans. Supported by an Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Grant, Curtis organized and duplicated Dr. Johnson's approximately two hundred oral histories and developed seven lesson plans.
- Axis and Allied Leaders in World War II
- Big Red One - World War II
- North African Campaign - World War II
- Realities of War - World War II
- Tuskegee Airmen - World War II
- Story of Segregation
- Oral History Procedures
City of Nacogdoches Preserve America Grant & Dept. of History Workshop
The following materials were compiled by Dr. Sandul and Dr. Beisel for an Oral History Workshop on June 25, 2010 at SFASU that was free and open to the public. Dr. Bobby H. Johnson, oral historian extraordinaire, gave a very well received mid-day talk. We had 32 attendees. This workshop was co-sponsored by the Department of History and the City of Nacogdoches's Preserve America Grant.
- The Oral History Association
- Texas Oral History Association
- Baylor Institute for Oral History
- Texas Historical Commission's Fundamentals of Oral History Guidelines
- Forms
Charlie Wilson Oral History Project, ETRC
U.S. Representative Charlie Wilson served in Congress from 1973 until 1996. Best known for his support of the Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet Union, Representative Wilson was a popular politician in his home region of East Texas. Wilson's official papers are available at the East Texas Research Center and they served as the basis of journalist Geroge Crile III's 2003 biography of Wilson, Charle Wilson's War. The official Charlie Wilson Oral History Project is hosted by the Center for Regional Heritage Research.
- The students collaborated on a museum exhibit about former congressperson Charlie N. Wilson, who hailed from East Texas. Utilizing oral histories recently done for the Charlie Wilson Oral History Project at SFA, the students highlighted Wilson's life and career and, impressively, created QR codes that direct viewers to websites to see videos of Wilson, as well as to provide audio clips of relevant interviews through a phone bank. The exhibit was featured in the East Texas Research Center during the summer of 2012, but you can view the exhibit as PDF file here or a PowerPoint file here, which also includes workable QR codes and the phone number to call to access oral history clips.
_rdax_500x375.jpg "Public History graduate students Mark Musquiz and Pamela Temple working on exhibit panels")
