CSUF’s Lawrence de Graaf Center for Oral and Public History is home to one of the largest collections of oral histories in the state.
As part of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, the center contains more than 6,000 oral histories, recorded by student interviewers and told by individuals who’ve lived through historically impactful events and periods.
But the center does more than create and archive oral histories,” said Natalie Fousekis, the center’s director.
“We teach students, we hold community workshops, we teach the community how to do oral history,” said Fousekis, who has been with the center since 2002 and has served as director since 2008. “Then we also teach students how to take the histories from our archives out into the public.”
Current and recent projects include Women, Politics and Activism; Orange County Politics; Documenting Experiences of Mexican, Filipina and Chicana Women in California Agriculture and the CSU Women’s Presidents Project, which examines the contributions to higher education by women who serve as leaders and administrators.
Students in associate director Ben Cawthra’s visual history course curated the Dorothea Lange exhibit currently on display at the Orange County Great Park.
Lange’s iconic photographs from the 1930s and 1940s captured the mood of the nation through the Great Depression and World War II.
And one of more ambitious projects currently underway is an oral history project on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fousekis is having her students collect oral histories from frontline workers in the medical field and essential workers.
Students are also interviewing Asian American teachers and others to address the surge in anti-Asian hate that occurred during the pandemic. Oral histories are also being collected from African Americans.
“Because in my mind, you can’t really separate one from the other,” Fousekis said. “But some students have interviewed people who were participating in…
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