Staring Out to Sea and the Transformative Power of Oral History for Undergraduate Interviewers
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2016
Abstract
In January 2013, Abigail Perkiss, assistant professor of history at Kean University in Union, New Jersey, began work with six undergraduate students to develop an oral history project to document Hurricane Sandy and its aftermath. For several months, these students worked to set the parameters and scope of the project, while at the same time studying the work of oral history and preparing themselves to go into the field to recruit participants and conduct interviews. For a number of these students, themselves impacted by the storm, the project took them into their own communities to capture the stories of their neighbors and friends. The students gained new insights into their own agency in the world; they turned their own feelings of victimization after the storm into a sense of ownership and control during the recovery process; and they felt empowered as both historians and as historical actors to effect change in the world around them. This essay traces the transformative impact of the Staring Out to Sea Oral History Project on these undergraduates.
Publication Title
Oral History Review
First Page Number
392
Last Page Number
407
DOI
10.1093/ohr/ohw049
Recommended Citation
Perkiss, Abigail, "Staring Out to Sea and the Transformative Power of Oral History for Undergraduate Interviewers" (2016). Kean Publications. 1713.
https://digitalcommons.kean.edu/keanpublications/1713