NEWS

Local interest: Washington, Waynesville, Winston-Salem

Gathering oral histories topic of free workshops in N.C.

CHAPEL HILL -- Determined to get Grandpa's World War II stories on tape? Not sure how to open up those memory floodgates and keep him talking once he starts?

Then you may be the perfect candidate for a free workshop on how to gather oral histories, to be taught three times at different locations across the state: March 8 in Washington, March 22 in Winston-Salem and April 26 in Waynesville.

Graduate students and staff from the Southern Oral History Program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will teach the workshops, which will cover interview techniques, equipment, post-interview processing and ways to share and present findings.

"This training is ideal for members of local historical groups, schools and other community-based organizations, as well as for family historians and genealogists," said Dr. Jacquelyn Hall, program director and winner of a National Humanities Medal. "No prior experience with oral history is required."

Later, the program will provide consulting to select local historical groups with community oral history projects under way.

"This will allow the program to strengthen our connections with groups and individuals producing new historical knowledge across our state," Hall said.

Each workshop will meet from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with a break for lunch on your own, at these locations:

• March 8, Washington: George H. and Laura E. Brown Public Library, 122 Van Norden St.
• March 22, Winston-Salem: Reynolda Manor Branch, Forsyth County Public Library, 2839 Fairlown Drive.
• April 26, Waynesville: Haywood County Public Library, 678 S. Haywood St.
  

Participants must register in advance by contacting Beth Millwood at the Southern Oral History Program, 919-962-0455, emillwoo@email.unc.edu or 406 Hamilton Hall, CB 9127, UNC, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-9127.

Designed to encourage the gathering of oral histories in communities, the workshops are funded with a $5,000 grant to the program from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton, N.J. The program won one of just three 2002 Woodrow Wilson Innovation Awards that the foundation made nationwide. The N.C. Humanities Council gave another $2,000 for the workshops.

A part of UNC's Center for the Study of the American South, the program aims to preserve historical memories before they are lost, capturing stories in the words of people who lived history. The program teaches students new approaches to study of the past and supports distinguished scholarship on the history of North Carolina and the South.

Among books generated by program research was "Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World" by Hall and others, presenting a Southern textile labor history in the words of mill village residents.

Currently the center is engaged in "Listening for a Change," a project to record stories of hundreds of North Carolinians, documenting key aspects of the state's transformation since World War II. The project examines race relations, environmentalism, economic globalization, demographic shifts and agricultural change. The program has presented key findings from this project to North Carolina public school teachers in weeklong summer seminars.

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Southern Oral History Program contact: Joseph Mosnier, associate director, Southern Oral History Program, 919-962-5931, mosnier@unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, 919-962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu