Citing Oral Histories in Literacy Studies

Alison Turner

doi:10.21623/1.10.2.5

Literacy in Composition Studies May 2023 RSS Open Access

Citing Oral Histories in Literacy Studies

Alison Turner University of Denver

Abstract

Researchers use a variety of oral methods to include the knowledge and perspectives of historically underrepresented communities in their explorations of writing and literacy studies, and these methods are vital to more accurate understandings of the breadth of how literacy functions in societies. However, simultaneous to this important work of recording new oral histories, interviews, and videos is an overwhelming reliance on written sources in the Works Cited sections of these pursuits. In this article, I argue that recording new oral forms of information without citing oral sources perpetuates connections between written text as an authoritative source of evidence for the past and oral sources with the present. I share the low frequency with which authors in writing and literacy journals include oral history in their Works Cited sections and explore possible reasons for and consequences of a near-complete reliance on written sources. I conduct a close reading of an oral history donated by a woman named Jazz to emphasize its relevance to writing and literacy studies as a primary source. I end by suggesting that more intentional citation of oral sources contributes to ongoing efforts of inclusion in academic research, writing, and publishing.

Journal: Literacy in Composition Studies
Published: 2023-05-17
DOI: 10.21623/1.10.2.5
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Open Access: OA PDF Gold
Topics: literacy studies
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References (10) · 1 in this index

Community Literacy Journal
Process and Results
Using the site’s search engine, I searched for “oral history” and “oral histories,” limiting results to the l…
Trimble et al. (2020)

The 1967 Project

Community Literacy Journal
This article discusses how undergraduates recorded oral history narratives with “older adults” who experience…

Show all 10 →

Reflections
The archive search function on this site does not allow filtering by date. I searched “oral histor,” to accou…
This leaves four articles that employ oral histories.
1) “Cultivating Empathy on the Eve of the Pandemic” by Caroline Gottschalk Druschke, Tamara Dean, Rachel Alsb…
This article describes how an undergraduate course pivoted during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, students…

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Citing Oral Histories in Literacy Studies

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

References (10) · 1 in this index

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