ORAL HISTORY

The course is among the Core Educational Activities of the Master's degree course in History and ACEL; it is also among the Related or Additional Studies of other Master's degree courses.
The aim of the course is to provide an introduction to oral history and to the use of oral sources for historical and social research.

Knowledge and understanding:
- knowledge of research practices with oral sources: interview, transcription, interpretation, conservation
- knowledge of the evolution and of the main exponents of oral history, especially in Italy
- knowledge of the theoretical and epistemological debate related to oral history
- knowledge of ethical, deontological and legal issues involved in oral history
Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
- ability to apply the research methodology with oral sources
- ability to choose the most appropriate ways to do it
Communication and relational skills:
- know how to present and discuss a theoretical or historiographical text in a seminar context orally
- knowing how to interact in a peer group
- know how to express the results of a research in a short written text

A voice recorder.
Knowledge of the essential lines of contemporary history.

Oral history methodology, history of interviewing practices, inteview and interpretation, ethics and best practices in oral history; oral and public history, oral history and contemporary Brazilian and Italian history.

Casellato, Alessandro. Il mestiere della storia orale. Stato dell'arte e buone pratiche. In: Archivo Trentino, vol. 1, 2016a, pp. 75-102.

Casellato, Alessandro (org.). Il microfono rovesciato: 10 variazioni sulla storia orale. Treviso: Istresco, 2007 (3 interviews - free choice).

Freund, Alexander. “‘Confessing Animals’: Towards a Longue Dure´e History of the Oral History Interview,” The Oral History Review 41, no. 1 (2014): 1–26.

Freund, Alexander. Under Storytelling’s Spell? Oral History in a Neoliberal Age. In: The Oral History Review. Vol 42, No. 1 (2015), pp. 96–132.

Portelli, Alessandro. C’è sempre um confine: Memoria storica, dialogo e racconto collectivo”. In: Storie orali: racconto, immaginazione, dialogo. Roma: Donzelli, 2007, p. 59-74.

Portelli, Alessandro. Living Voices: The Oral History Interview as Dialogue and Experience, The Oral History Review, Volume 45, Issue 2, Summer/Fall 2018, p. 239–248, https://doi.org/10.1093/ohr/ohy030 ;

Portelli, Alessandro. Rome’s House of Memory and History: The Politics of Memory and Public Institutions. In: Ritchie, D. A. (Org). The Oxford Handbook of Oral History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, p 112-123.

Portelli, Alessandro. Um lavoro di relazion: osservazioni sulla storia orale. In. Ricerche Storiche Salesiane, v. 36, n.1, 2000, p. 125-134

Portelli, Alessandro. What makes oral history different. In. Perks, R. and Thomson, A. (eds). The Oral History Reader. London: Routledge, 2003, p. 63-74.

Santhiago, Ricardo; Mauad, Ana Maria e Trindade, Viviane Borges (orgs.). What Public History we want? São Paulo: Letra e Voz, 2018, p. 315-321; 331-338.

Sheftel, Anna; Zembrzycki, Stacey. Who’s afraid of oral history? Fifty years if debates and anxiety about ethics. In: Oral History Review, vol, 43, n.2, p. 338-366, 2016

For those who do not attend:

In addition to the texts above:

Casellato, Alessandro (org.). Il microfono rovesciato: 10 variazioni sulla storia orale. Treviso: Istresco, 2007.

1 - Written exam on reference texts - attending and non-attending students):

December 16th, 11 – 13hs
January – we still don’t have the date (probably the second week of January)

Casellato, Alessandro. Ilmestiere della storia orale. Stato dell'arte e buone pratiche. In:Archivo Trentino, vol. 1, 2016a, pp.75-102.
Casellato, Alessandro (Org.). Ilmicrofono rovesciato: 10 variazioni sulla storia orale. Treviso:Istresco, 2007 (one chapter to be chosen by the students).
Freund, Alexander. “‘Confessing Animals’: Towards a Longue Durée History of the OralHistory Interview,” The Oral History Review 41, no. 1 (2014): 1–26.
Freund, Alexander. Under Storytelling’s Spell? Oral History in a Neoliberal Age. In: TheOral History Review. Vol 42, No. 1 (2015), pp. 96–132.
Portelli,Alessandro.LivingVoices: The Oral History Interview as Dialogue and Experience, The Oral History Review, Volume 45, Issue 2, Summer/Fall 2018, p. 239–248.
Portelli, Alessandro. Um lavoro direlazion: osservazioni sulla storia orale. In.Ricerche Storiche Salesiane, v. 36, n.1, 2000, p. 125-134.
Portelli, Alessandro. What makes oral history different. In. Perks, R. and Thomson, A. (eds). The Oral History Reader. London:Routledge, 2003, p. 63-74.
Thomson, Alistair. Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History. The Oral History Review, Volume 34, Issue 1, 2007, Pages 49–70.
Sheftel, Anna; Zembrzycki, Stacey. Who’s afraid of oral history? Fifty years if debates and anxiety about ethics. In: OralHistory Review, vol, 43, n.2, p. 338-366, 2016.

2 - Elaboration of a paper (4 – 6 pages, attending and non-attending students): Deadline - January 12th (send pdf file to carla.rodeghero@unive.it)
Exploration and analysis of online interview collections. The students must: 1 - select one oral history interview available in an online archive; 2 - briefly describe the research project to which the interview belongs, biography of the interviewee and interviewer, script of questions, main topics discussed; 3 - analyze and describe the archive consulted: to which institution it belongs, which projectsit houses, what interview formats are available (audio, video, transcript, documentary, podcast, etc.); 4 - reflect on the potential of online collections for oral history.

Suggestions for online archives:
https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/
https://collections.mnhs.org/voicesofmn/
https://lgbtqreligiousarchives.org/
https://cpdoc.fgv.br/acervo/historiaoral/entrevistas  

3 - Only non-attending students:  
Read the introduction and three interviews from Casellato, Alessandro (Org.). Il microfono rovesciato: 10 variazioni sulla storia orale.Treviso: Istresco, 2007, and write comments (4 pages) in dialogue with the reference texts (use at least three texts). Deadline: January 12th (send pdf file to carla.rodeghero@unive.it).Obs. – the exams can be written in English, Italian or Portuguese
Written exam on reference texts

Attending students: written exam on the reference texts: 40%; participation in the lessons: 30%; paper: 30%.

Non-attending students: written exam on the reference texts: 50%; papers (two papers): 50%.

Lecture
Seminars
Previous reading
Online research

English

written