Special Topics (390-0-21)

Topic

Oral History as Journalism

Instructors

Alex Kotlowitz
847/467-4099
555 Clark Street, Room 218

Meeting Info

McCormick Foundation Ctr 2111: Mon 1:00PM - 3:50PM

Overview of class

Publications from The Washington Post to Vanity Fair to The New York Times have increasingly turned to oral history as a vehicle for storytelling. In this course, we'll read magazine pieces and book excerpts, listen to audio, watch film - and try our hand at telling stories where the narrator/the reporter gets completely out of the way.

Think of this as a master class in interviewing. What are the best techniques to get people to feel comfortable opening up? How do we get to know people's stories? What are the ethical issues that arise in this kind of work? We'll read the masters, from Studs Terkel to the Nobel Prize-winning Svetlana Alexievich to Anna Deavere Smith. We'll read excerpts of oral histories on Black soldiers in Vietnam, on an archive on hip-hop, on refugees, on our time under COVID. We'll listen to radio including Joe Richman's Radio Diaries and StoryCorps. We'll watch films like Flee, the animated story of an Afghan refugee told in his own words. We'll come to appreciate the power of the human voice.

This is a relatively new way of telling journalistic stories, and so we'll look at how journalists are experimenting with this form. We'll hopefully have some guest speakers, practitioners of this craft.

Everyone will have the chance to work on an oral history project of their own, and there will be room for those with audio experience to do it as an audio piece.

Registration Requirements

Pre-reqs: Sophomore standing, JOUR 301

Class Materials (Required)

1. The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman, et al - $11.89 paperback

2. Emperor: Downfall of an Autocrat by Ryszard Kapuściński -- $12.92 paperback

Class Attributes

Attendance at 1st class mandatory
Prerequisites apply, see description
No Freshmen