NMDS
5025

Projects: Oral History

Schools of Public Engagement: Media

Liberal Arts
Undergraduate Course
Graduate Course
Degree Students
Projects: Oral History
Spring 2026
Taught By: Suzanne Snider
Section: A

CRN: 15438

Credits: 3

Oral history is a powerful documentary form and collaborative process that crosses fields including human rights work, anthropology, history, visual art, brand strategy, filmmaking, and journalism to name a few. Oral history offers interviewers of all stripes an ethical framework and a set of best practices for recording complex human stories with consideration for reciprocity, accessibility, shared authority, consent, intersubjectivity, and memory/myth. In this combined seminar/studio course, we engage with theoretical readings drawn from the field of oral history and adjacent fields (psychoanalysis, trauma studies, disability studies) as we explore the strengths and limitations of oral history and what, specifically, makes this methodology different from other interview approaches and styles. After surveying archival collections, we examine oral history-based works in museums, magazines, films, public health reports, and theater spaces. Our training, which covers interview practice, recording tutorials, listening exercises, discussions of trauma, collective memory and archival resistance, will serve as a foundation for a culminating project that embodies and/or challenges oral history methodology.

Open to: all Graduate Students. Undergraduate Juniors and Seniors with permission from the program.
Prerequisites: No Prerequisites
Co-Requisites: No Co-requisites

College: Schools of Public Engagement (NS)

Department: Media (MED)

Campus: New York City (GV)

Course Format: Seminar (R)

Modality: Online - Synchronous

Max Enrollment: 15

Repeat Limit: N/A

Add/Drop Deadline: February 3, 2026 (Tuesday)

Online Withdrawal Deadline: April 14, 2026 (Tuesday)

Seats Available: Yes

Status: Open*

* Status information is updated every few minutes. The status of this course may have changed since the last update. Open seats may have restrictions that will prevent some students from registering. Updated: 9:12am EDT 10/8/2025

Meeting Info:
Days: Monday
Times: 4:00pm - 6:40pm
Building: Online Course
Room: 999
Date Range: 1/21/2026 - 5/12/2026