A one page project statement can convey a lot to the people you’ll interact with when you’re conducting your oral history project. This statement informs your faculty mentor where you might be going with your project. It can also reassure a trepidatious potential interviewee that you are sincere in your efforts.
Although if you’re thinking of building an oral history project, you should also familiarize yourself with the Best Practices of the Oral History Association, which distinguishes oral history interviews from other kinds of interviewing because:
- interviewers are prepared with background knowledge on the topic of inquiry
- the interviews will be made available to other researchers (in full)
- you’re abiding by shared best practices based upon Informed Consent.
For a deeper dive into the considerations behind these distinctions, check out the earlier Evaluation Guidelines, which takes a deliberate exploration into the ethical nuances of good practice.
Templates for Public Use
Consider downloading these templates developed by OHLA faculty to help you build and implement your project.
Project Statement: INFORMED-CONSENT-project-statement
Release Form: INTERVIEW-student-release-form
Also consider using a metadata form during your interviews to ensure you collect the necessary information, which will make them more easy to reference later on.
Metadata & Biography form: OHLA_-Interview-Metadata-Form
These materials are pulled from an earlier post by Brooke Bryan where she writes about planning projects with best practices in higher education and teaching undergraduate students how to interview.
Once your project design is complete, take the next step and email your potential subjects. Eric Rhodes has a guide where he shows you how to do just that.
