Department of History
American University
About the Department Degree Programs Faculty Info Internships and Institutes History Course Descriptions Schedule of Classes Research Links Career Center Admissions and Financial Aid Download Application








Oral History Tool of Reasearch

Since the founding of the Oral History Association in 1967, oral history has transformed the way many historians study the past.  Historians use oral history to record the testimony of informants who were eyewitnesses to historical events.  Oral history has provided social and cultural historians, in particular, with a rich body of evidence for historical actors who have not left written records of their experiences. This recorded testimony becomes a primary source available to a wide range of researchers once transcribed and published or deposited in an archive.

The Oral History Tool of Research at American University trains graduate students in this methodology according to the Oral History Association's professional guidelines entitled, "Principles and Standards of the Oral History Association."


To pass the tool of research, students must complete the following requirements:

1. Take and Pass HIS 667: Oral History. [See F2005 Syllabus]

 2.  An original Research Project and Research Paper (15-25 pages) using oral history. Students must conduct 3-4 original oral histories that build on the work done in HIS 667. These should be collected in a Project Binder with all relevant paperwork, tapes, and transcriptions.  The paper should place the student’s oral histories in a larger historical context and use them to make an original argument about the past. Students must supplement their work with published or archival oral histories on the topic plus relevant historiography and additional primary sources as needed.

 3. An historiographical essay (10-15 pages) on the current literature and theory in the field. (To be included in the Project Binder).  Students should read, compare and analyze six books and six articles from oral history journals – both methodological works and works using oral history.  Select works that reflect a theme (collective memory, folklore, dialectic interviews, feminist oral history) and/or a subject area (labor history, military history, local history).  Prepare a paper analyzing the scholarship and placing it within the wider historiography of oral history or an area of specialization within history, such as women’s history.

4. Students with extensive experience (but no comparable course work) may submit for approval a portfolio including professional experience and examples of their work.