Interviews of CCBC LGBTQ+ Heroes: An Oral History Project
Students at CCBC will be tasked with an oral history project unlike any other. The aim? To research, capture, and showcase stories and experiences of CCBC’s own LGBTQ+ faculty, staff, and alumni.
As we make strides toward becoming a truly inclusive, open, and non-judgemental learning community, it is important for our students to recognize the lives and efforts of people who paved the way for their current educational opportunities. That is why students will help document history by conducting interviews with people who have been involved in LGBTQ+ life at CCBC over the decades.
It’s not every day that students get the opportunity to delve deeper into their own college’s history, let alone be given the means to document it. Before embarking on this research project, students will participate in a number of activities, events, and workshops to build the skills needed to conduct an oral history interview. They will attend a “Preserving and Interpreting LGBT History” workshop with Dr. Susan Ferentinos, and an interview skills workshop led by Professor Jeremy Caplan. They will also attend a session on archiving with Professor Elizabeth Godwin, along with a technology training session. This level of preparation is designed to set the stage for good research practices that can support them throughout their academic endeavors and beyond. It will also enable students to feel confident in their presentations.
Once the students have been sufficiently prepared, they will then be asked to conduct an oral history interview with one person who has been involved in LGBTQ+ life at CCBC. Students will then go on to publish the interview on the Invisible History website along with a short paragraph explaining the historical and cultural context of their interview.
In addition to publishing their culminating work on the Invisible History website, students will also be encouraged to showcase their work at one of CCBC’s LGBTQ+ History Month panel discussions in October 2022. Throughout the process, students will be mentored Our goal is to give students the means by which to respectfully and honestly collect information and present it in such a way that it will contribute to understanding more of CCBC’s legacy.
The purpose is simple: to open the minds and hearts of current students to the plights and experiences of CCBC’s LGBTQ+ community and to provide an opportunity to engage deeply in an undergraduate-like research project while building a frame of teamwork and cohesion with other students and faculty mentors at CCBC. We want this project to set the standard for future oral history projects and to give students the confidence they need in order to continue participating in events and to spread the word of their work to wider audiences.
Now is the time to uplift marginalized voices and bring to light stories that were previously ignored or discredited. With this oral history project, as part of the Invisible History series, we aim to do just that.