On Saturday, February 1st, three Princeton University students—Zach Williamson ’26, Annalisa Jenkins ’27, and Noah Dorn ’27—participated in the panel “Oral History 101: Community- and University-based Collaborations for Oral History Projects” at the Princeton Public Library. The panel was part of a day-long oral history workshop organized by the library in collaboration with the Program for Community-Engaged Scholarship (ProCES). The event focused on oral history methods and practices, offering attendees—both newcomers and experienced practitioners—opportunities to learn from panel presentations, engage in small-group discussions, explore informational tables, and network with other oral historians.
Moderated by Tania Boster, Director of ProCES, the panel featured students trained to conduct oral history interviews for the Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project and as part of their coursework in SPA 364/LAO 364/AMS 434, a class on oral history taught by Prof. Alberto Bruzos Moro. They reflected on their experiences conducting interviews, sharing what worked, what challenges they encountered, and what they wished they had known at the outset. The students in SPA 364 contributed to “Voces de la Diáspora,” an oral history project dedicated to documenting the stories of Spanish-speaking communities connected to Princeton.
Annalisa Jenkins (Department of Spanish and Portuguese) discussed how the course prepared her for independent oral history work with environmental activists in Bolivia, Puerto Rico, and Baltimore. She emphasized the ethical considerations in building relationships with interviewees. Zach Williamson (Economics) highlighted the benefits of the class’s step-by-step approach and the value of studying previous oral histories about Princeton’s Latin American and African American communities. Noah Dorn (Economics) described the comprehensive nature of the training, which included question development, technology practice, and interview techniques. He also noted that conducting interviews in pairs helped mitigate students’ lack of experience. Additionally, he shared how students have continued contributing to the project through transcription and translation efforts.
The panelists also discussed key aspects of conducting oral history interviews, such as ethical considerations in obtaining informed consent, strategies for community engagement, and the importance of building trust.
About Voces de la Diáspora
Voces de la Diáspora is an oral history project dedicated to collecting, sharing, and archiving the stories of Spanish-speaking communities in Princeton, New Jersey. It is a collaboration between Prof. Alberto Bruzos Moro (Department of Spanish and Portuguese), Prof. Rosina Lozano (Department of History), and ProCES at Princeton University. The project is also a partner of Voices of Princeton, an oral history initiative co-sponsored by the Princeton Public Library, the Historical Society of Princeton, the Arts Council of Princeton, and the Witherspoon-Jackson Historical and Cultural Society. Selected interviews from the project will be published on the Voices of Princeton website.
Launched in 2022, Voces de la Diáspora emerged from a collaboration between Voices of Princeton and ProCES, which sought to revitalize oral history efforts by incorporating a broader range of voices. With support from Princeton University’s 250th Anniversary Fund, Professors Bruzos and Lozano developed a three-year series of Spanish and History courses to train students in oral history research and engage them in different stages of the project. While the initial focus is on the Latin American immigrant communities in Princeton, the project is open to future expansion into other places, languages, and topics such as community leadership and pro-immigrant activism.