Oral History

Department of History

The Oral History Program at CSULB is an instructional program within the History Department. Students can take oral history classes in conjunction with other courses or can pursue research, including thesis research, using oral history.

Housed in the Department of History, the program is designed to teach and train history students in the use of materials that focus on largely unwritten sources. Oral History at CSULB is an instructional program offering students an enhanced knowledge of the techniques and methodologies of oral information gathering and its uses in teaching and research. It also serves as an oral history resource for educational and community groups.

The Oral History Program was designed to aid students in their research, since oral history is important in the study of the human experience. History majors, musicologists and social science credential students with a history concentration, are urged to take the one-unit workshop. Students in these workshops learn how to design an oral history project, and to conduct interviews. Workshops are especially helpful for students interested in local history, the history of the family, and communities whose written records have not been included in traditional historical materials.

Oral History is not a degree granting program. However, students can incorporate oral history into their programs and earn either a Bachelor or Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies. And unlike many oral history programs, the CSULB program is not primarily a collection program that initiates oral history projects.

The Oral History Program also serves as a resource for faculty, students and local community groups, including K-12 schools, to help them promote and use oral history in both teaching and research. An instructional video, Adventures in Oral History: Oral History in the K-12 Classroom, made in cooperation with the Long Beach Unified School District, is available for a small shipping and handling fee.

Adventures in Oral History: Oral History in the K-12 Classroom

Produced and Directed by Sherna Berger Gluck & Karen Harper

A Collaborative Project of California State University, Long Beach & Long Beach Unified School District, 1999

This video contains two different versions of the program:

  1. The first and slightly longer program (approximately 35 minutes) is designed for teachers/trainers and includes an introduction with some classroom teachers and a tail end discussion by them. The bulk of the program is devoted to five (five minute) segments of 3rd to 11th graders either doing interviews or talking about their work.
  2. The second, shorter program (approx. 30 minutes) is designed for showing to K-12 students and includes the same five segments with very brief introductions to each.

The video is available for a small handling and shipping charge ($15). Contact Sherna Berger Gluck via email or Karen Harper at (562) 439-9856.