convOH: Recent Episodes
convohpodcast
Thanks for your patience during our unintentional interlude!
Our latest interview is with food microbiologist Dana Waggoner.
An interview with public librarian Marie Reist, now Marie Reist Tucker, on life in a pandemic and journaling historically.
Today we’re finishing (at least for now) the series of interviews from my independent study project undertaken during my graduate studies in 2015. There are a couple more interviews from that project, but I’ve been having trouble getting in touch with the interviewees to get their approval for their interview to be shared outside of the schoolwork I did back then. One of the big concepts for good oral history work is always consent – not only to be recorded, but also for the specific context in which the recording can be used or shared. This also applies to what people do or do not want to talk about when they are being interviewed.
Another interesting thing about oral histories is the conversation around the length of an interview. I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the Oral History Association conference last year, and there were some folks who would call 2 or 3 hours a nice long interview (me included), and some who would say “you call that long? Back in my day we did 10 or 12 hour interviews!...” or something like that. Today’s interview is probably the shortest I have ever done, but I think it’s still a pretty good one, and not just because who we’re speaking with: Dr. Elise Lewis
Dr. Lewis is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina’s School of Library and Information Science, where she teaches everything from the first introductory courses at an undergrad and graduate level to more specialized instruction like Web Technologies for Information Specialists and Technology in Cultural Heritage Institutions. Her own education was through the University of North Texas, starting with a Bachelors in Radio, Television, and Film Production, continuing with her Masters in Library and Information Science, and then completing her Doctorate in Information Science in 2011.
In this episode our convOH is with Dr. Heather Moorefield-Lang, then an Assistant Professor at the University of South Carolina, now an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, specializing in school librarianship and technology in education. Most recently a lot of her research and publications have been centered around makerspaces in school libraries and the pedagogy involved in learning through making. Dr. Moorefield-Lang has received many awards and recognitions over her career, including being nominated for White House Champion of Change for Making in 2016 and was awarded as an American Association of School Librarians Social Media Superstar in the area of Tech Troubadours in 2018. She can be found on Twitter at @actinginthelib and also has a great YouTube channel called TechFifteen (if you’re looking that up that’s with no spaces, and fifteen is the word not numbers) which introduces tech tools for education or general enjoyment in 15 minutes or less (usually closer to 5 minutes or less). I’ll add a link to our website and whatnot because it’s a great resource. Fair warning, if you go far back enough some of the videos are by me as her Graduate Assistant during my MLIS.
Our third episodes starts a short series of interviews done in 2015 while I was an MLIS student at the University of South Carolina.
Today's episode is a convOH with Dr. Samantha K. Hastings, who served as the Director of the School of Library and Information Science at USC from 2006-2016 and continues to be an advocate for literacy and libraries.
Our convOH with Dr Hastings includes some of the many adventures she has had over her career, the role of libraries in society, and the importance of advocacy.
Today we're talking with Dennis Coker, a Retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Medical Service Corps, healthcare administrator, teacher, proud father of five (including me), and the first person I ever saw conduct an oral history interview with his video series Tales of Puddin Swamp interviewing his father, a master storyteller and all-around amazing person.
Our convOH includes Dennis' growing up years as a military kid; his own military career; community theater in San Antonio, Germany, and other locales; the value of history; plenty of funny stories about military life, theater life, and family life; and how he came to develop the Tales of Puddin Swamp series.
Welcome to the first episode of convOH, an informal oral history interview podcast.
Our name ends with a capital OH for Oral History, the practice and process of recording, preserving, interpreting, and sharing interviews. And who better to introduce some of the concepts and methods of oral history than an an award-winning oral historian? Andrea L'Hommedieu, the Director of the Department of Oral History at the University of South Carolina, had a lovely convOH with us about how she became an oral historian, different projects she has done throughout her career, and advice for anyone interested in recording interviews themselves.