Office: Liberal Arts 311

Phone: 747-7067

Email address: yleyva@utep.edu

Office hours: TR 10:30 a.m.-12 noon and by appointment

F Course description

Public history is a field that deals with the issues and methodologies surrounding the presentation of history to the general public through venues as diverse as popular publications, museum exhibits, documentaries, and archives. Because of its focus on the public, community and community-building are important issues to the public historian. This course will explore the inter-related issues of community and memory through a series of readings and participation in a community oral history project.

Among the questions we will consider this semester are: How can we use history to help build community? How do we define community? What role do communities play in promoting and preserving history? How do we, as individuals and communities, remember "our" history? Whose histories get remembered? What role do we, as historians, play in the remembrance of histories?

We will spend approximately half of the class (7 sessions) reading and discussing monographs on a variety of critical issues: How does U.S. culture shape memory, how is history used and misused in our day-to-day life, how can history be used to build community dialogue, and how do we investigate local history?

The other half of the class will be spent working in the community on a project in Socorro/ San Elizario. Working with Socorro High School students, we will design and implement an oral history project, which will interview older residents of the Lower Valley. Since there are many different activities involved in the creation of a community history project, the hands-on part of the class will allow students some flexibility. All graduate students will mentor high school students as they conduct oral histories, but there are other possibilities. You may conduct archival research, assist in organizing community gatherings, work on a publication to be distributed in the community, or help set up a web page focusing on public history and this community project. The purpose of this component of the course is to give you hands on training in public history, experience that will be useful if you are considering a career in public history. See the attached descriptions of the Oral Histories in the High Schools Project and Website.

History 5304 is unique in that it will allow students to confront issues important to historians in both an academic setting and in the community.

Course readings &

1. David E. Kyvig and Myron A. Marty, Nearby History: Exploring the Past around You (American Association for State and Local History Book Series)

2. Roger I. Simon, Between Hope and Despair: Pedagogy and the Remembrance of Historical Trauma

3. Mike Wallace, Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American History

4. John E. Bodnar, Remaking America: Public Memory, Commemoration, and Patriotism in the Twentieth Century

5. Martha K. Norkunas, The Politics of Public Memory: Tourism, History, and Ethnicity in Monterey, California (Suny Series in Oral and Public History)

6. Holly Beachley Brear, Inherit the Alamo: Myth and Ritual at an American Shrine

7. David Thelen and Roy Rosenzweig, The Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life

8. Robert Archibald, A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community

See also Baylor University Institute for Oral History’s Oral History Workshop on the Web (http://www3.baylor.edu/Oral_History/Workshopmainframe.htm)

I will also make available a booklet on oral history projects in the classroom.

Since this class is a combination of reading and fieldwork, you will be graded on both.

For each week (except week 1) that you are assigned a book, you will turn in a 3-page paper, summarizing the thesis and the arguments as well as responding to what you read. Ask yourself questions such as:

What is the thesis/argument? Did the author prove his/her thesis?
Were the sources credible/believable?
What theoretical foundation did the author use?
What questions did it raise for you?
If you were to carry the research further, where would you take it?

These short papers are due the Tuesday before class by 5 p.m. You may put them in my mailbox. Remember that the History Department office closes at 5!

There are seven weeks of official fieldwork during the semester. I expect you to do at least 42 hours of hands-on work during the semester. This is the equivalent of 21 hours of class time/ 21 hours of class preparation that you will not have during the semester. While 42 hours may sound like a lot, it is much less time than if you were to read a book weekly and prepare for a weekly three-hour graduate class for seven weeks. Because of the diversity of tasks that make up this project, your 42 hours may be concentrated during one part of the semester or they may be spread out.

I ask that you keep a time sheet tracking the hours spent/ activities conducted. I have attached a blank time sheet for your use.

Early in the semester, each student will commit to a particular component of the oral history project.

A final paper is due at the end of the semester. This 10-page paper will explore your experiences this semester within the context of the readings and fieldwork. You may consider questions such as: How did your fieldwork illuminate/ contradict/ reinforce what you read this semester? How did the issues discussed in class come to life as your worked with the community oral history project? If you were to carry the oral history project forward, where would it go? What problems did you encounter working with the project? How did you deal with the problems?

The paper should be well-written, proof read, and footnoted. Please refer to specific readings in writing this paper.

Read David E. Kyvig and Myron A. Marty, Nearby History

Labor Day is September 2- no classes

Turn in "Who I am" assignment

Read Robert Archibald, A Place to Remember: Using History to Build Community

Individual meetings/ fieldwork.

Read Mike Wallace, Mickey Mouse History and Other Essays on American History

Week 5 (September 23-27)

Read John E. Bodnar, Remaking America

Read Martha K. Norkunas, The Politics of Public Memory

Fieldwork

Read David Thelen and Roy Rosenzweig, The Presence of the Past

Fieldwork

Read Holly Beachley Brear, Inherit the Alamo: Myth and Ritual at an American Shrine

Fieldwork

Fieldwork

Fieldwork

Read Roger I. Simon, Between Hope and Despair

Thanksgiving holidays, November 28-29.

Fieldwork

Final paper is due December 11 by noon. Please turn in to my mailbox.

(This is excerpted from a report to the National Endowment for the Humanities by Dr. Yolanda Chávez Leyva, Department of History, University of Texas at El Paso, July 10, 2001.)

The Oral Histories in the High Schools Project is a program that brings together graduate students from UTEP’s history department, high schools students and teachers, as well as community members. The goals of this project are several:

1. To gather local oral histories from elders in the community so that they may be preserved and utilized in a number of ways. The oral histories will be deposited in UTEP’s Institute of Oral History collection so that future researchers may access them. In addition, we hope to produce a small publication using excerpts of the oral histories. The publication will be distributed in the community. I have also spoken to a curriculum development specialist at the Institute of Texas Cultures about posting excerpts of the oral histories on their web site. The Institute of Texan Cultures (ITC) is an educational center in San Antonio, Texas whose goal is to enhance understanding of the people and history of Texas. The website is widely used by teachers throughout the state.

2. To promote the field of public history among several constituencies, including graduate history students, high school students, and the community at large. During the internship phase of the class, graduate students will pair with small groups of high school students to conduct and process oral histories. In addition to the gathering of oral histories, public history will be promoted throughout the community through a series of meetings featuring local stories/histories.

3. To generate interest and further knowledge of local histories, which will assist in building a stronger sense of community.

The first semester of the Oral Histories in the High Schools Project will focus on the communities of San Elizario and Socorro. Antonio Baca, the principal of Socorro High School, is enthusiastic about the project. Juan Garcia, a social studies teacher, will supervise his upper division high school students as they gather the oral histories. In addition, I have made contact with local residents of San Elizario who are also eager for the project to proceed. In particular, members of the San Elizario Genealogy and Historical Society have expressed support.

Graduate students and high school students will receive training in using technology from the IOH staff. In early August, I will provide training on conducting oral histories to the Socorro High School students.

We hope that this first NEH-funded program will continue in other high schools in the coming years. I have already spoken to a faculty member at Bowie High School about sponsoring the "Oral History in the High Schools Project" in 2003-2004.

This summer, I am working with a consultant, Juan Garcia, to create a website for the project. The website will serve as a handbook for high school teachers interested in conducting similar projects. While there are several good handbooks on carrying out oral history projects in high schools, including the Oral History Association’s Oral History in the Secondary School Classroom, we believe that this website will be unique. First, it will be posted on-line, making it more accessible to high school teachers. Secondly, providing links to other on-line resources will enhance its usefulness. For example, the ITC has already created aligned oral history project with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), saving high school teachers a time consuming task. Thirdly, the website will provide a suggested structure for incorporating university students as part of the project by including the course syllabus and guidelines. Finally, the website will contextualize doing oral history within a regional perspective, using the borderlands as our geographic context. By including a brief history of San Elizario and Socorro, the website will demonstrate to high school teachers and university professors how to incorporate a local focus while conducting similar projects.

Mr. Garcia and I envision the website to employ the following structure:

1. A section for high school teachers, which will include guidelines and handouts for students. Mr. Garcia is creating these this month. This section will also include an introduction for high school students written by Mr. Garcia, using his experience as a high school teacher to address issues and concerns of other high school teachers. This section will eventually include a page on student responses to the project.

2. A section for university professors, which will include the class syllabus, information on how to get university students involved in similar projects, and a bibliography. This section will also eventually include student responses.

3. A section of on-line resources focusing on oral history.

4. A section on and for the community. This part of the website will include a brief history of San Elizario and Socorro, a list of potential oral history questions based on local history, and eventually excerpts from the oral histories. This summer, Mr. Garcia has begun gathering information on the history of the area.

Each year, information on new projects may be added to the website.