Assignment
The term paper is designed to encourage students to mimic the historian’s craft by conducting an oral history and then using that oral history to write an eight to ten page paper that is a) one part biography/profile and b) one part social history. In addition to the term paper, students are required to record, transcribe, and turn in the audio file, a transcript of their interview, as well as obtain a legal release from their interviewee.
How to Complete the Term Paper
1) You must choose a subject who has lived the majority of his/her life in California. Your interviewee does not have to be native Californian. Please chose someone of legal age. The most important tip is to chose someone who is willing to talk and reflect on their personal history in our state.
2) Gather as much background information as you can about this person before the interview, and then compile a list of questions to ask your interviewee. You should begin your interview with biographical and family history inquiries in order to generate material for the biographical/profile section of your paper. For example, who are his/her parents? What was his/her occupation? Siblings? What was early life like? How was he/she raised? Where did he/she live? What was school like? How did he/she choose he/her career? Is there a particular experience that has shaped his/her personality? What is his/her passion? Regrets? Love life? What are his/her hopes and wishes for the future? Experience with race, class, gender and sex?
Your next set of questions need to be constructed in a way that prompts your interviewee to talk about what his/her/they life is like at this particular moment in time in California History (the social history part of your paper). What is his/her/they daily schedule from morning to night? What does a typical day of work look like? What does he/she/they do in her leisure time? Who are your interviewee’s friends? What is his/her/ opinion on current events? By the end of the paper, I want you to somehow address this question: What does it mean to be a Californian in the age of Donald Trump/Joe Biden, George Floyd/Black Lives Matter, and Covid-19?
3) You are required to record, to transcribe, and to turn in a) the audio, b) a transcript of your interview, as well as c) obtain a legal release