Oral Histories
The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP) is an award-winning, social-justice research center engaged in experiential learning initiatives all over the world and is dedicated to gathering, preserving, and promoting living histories of individuals from all walks of life. These records can be used as examples in your course, and to go one step further, including an oral history (interview) assignment in your course can promote learning in the areas of perspective taking and empathy.
Oral History Resources & Support
Accessing Oral Histories
- Browse the SPOHP archives
- View the videos series Remembering the Refugees of Jacksonville by SPOHP
Creating Oral Histories
- Learn how faculty can collaborate with the SPOHP to incorporate oral histories into classes
- Read about how to establish an oral history project
- Access resources for faculty who want to implement oral history projects on the Oral History in the Liberal Arts (OHLA) website
Sample Projects
- Watch student-produced documentaries from SPN3948, which partnered with SPOHP for several consecutive years to connect students with recent immigrants and document their experiences. This project was launched by Professor Emerita Kathy Dwyer Navajas in the fall of 2012.
- Watch the video below to learn how Professor Jeffrey Pufahl from the Center for Arts in Medicine at UF engaged his students with oral histories from the local community. In collaboration with both the Harn Museum of Art and SPOHP, Professor Pufahl developed a complex project where students connected oral histories with themes found in artwork and developed a theatrical production based on the oral histories, which was then performed live at the Harn. The play resulting from this project, From Colored to Black, as well as related pedagogical resources are available to view on the project website.
- During Prof. Antonio Sajid López Méndez’s virtual exchange project in the course SPN3948: Spanish in the Community, UF students compared displacement scenarios of Hispanics in the U.S. and rural Costa Ricans and developed strategies to support tourism entrepreneurship in Costa Rica, with the aim of minimizing displacement to the capital of San José. View the oral history video below that was created by the professors to document their students' conversations during this project.
