Resources for Students
Certificate in Public and Oral History
The Department of History offers a certificate in Public and Oral History. Students may also pursue a Certificate in Public and Oral History, which will train students in the methodology and practice of public history, focusing particularly on museums and oral history. Public history is a broad field that encompasses archives, museums, historical interpretation, and historic preservation, among others. Oral history, which is often classified as a subsection of public history, is the methodology and practice of collecting recorded oral interviews that are historically contextualized and made available for researchers and others. This certificate emphasizes oral history and museum exhibits. If you plan to earn the Certificate in Public and Oral History, please contact Dr. Yolanda Chávez Leyva at yleyva@utep.edu.
Degree Plan
Course |
Title |
Hours |
HIST 5302 |
Intro to Public History |
3 |
HIST 5304 |
Studies in Public History |
3 |
HIST 5390 |
Public History Internship |
3 |
Three additional hours of graduate seminar or independent reading courses with public/oral history content, or Museum Studies courses taken for graduate credit |
3 |
|
Total Hours |
12 |
Department of History Procedures for Conducting Oral History Interviews
The U.S. Office for Human Research Protection, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, working with the American Historical Association and the Oral History Association, has determined that oral history interviewing projects may be excluded from Institutional Review Board oversight because they are not considered “research.” Nonetheless, in order to ensure that they grasp the ethical issues involved in oral history interviews, researchers (faculty, graduate students, undergraduates) using such interviews in a public capacity must adhere to outlined procedures and receive written approval from the department’s Oral History Review Committee (OHRC) before beginning the interview process.
Research Guides
The Columbia University Center for Oral History (CCOHR) has developed a transcription style guide and a comprehensive oral history bibliography that are available for public use. These guides are helpful to students seeking to learn more about the oral history process.