“First, do no harm”: Tread carefully where oral history, trauma, and current crises intersect
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2020
Abstract
The nature of oral history fieldwork changes when it is conducted during the course of an ongoing, long-term crisis like COVID-19. One must ask what the role of the oral history practitioner is, if any, in crisis events. In what follows, I discuss this and strategies for undertaking COVID-19 projects based on my experience as director for the T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History at Louisiana State University Libraries and on models for crisis-centered oral histories. I also discuss what project managers must take into consideration with regard to the sustainability of crisis oral history projects during our current period of increasing change and political unrest.
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Oral History Review
First Page
203
Last Page
213
Recommended Citation
Cramer, J. (2020). “First, do no harm”: Tread carefully where oral history, trauma, and current crises intersect. Oral History Review, 47 (2), 203-213. https://doi.org/10.1080/00940798.2020.1793679