About Oral History Methodology
Reciprocity and Ethical Exchange
The ISLA speaker series for Spring semester of 2019 revolved around storytelling and oral history. Institute for the Study of Los Angeles Scholar in Residence Dr. Vicki Ruiz designed this series expressly to support and contextualize our then-new (NE)LA Stories project.Our first speaker, Dr. Virginia Espino, provided us with a host of tips and detailed advice about best practices in contemporary oral history work, emphasizing the crucial ethical standards that must guide any project that delves into the personal and collective past. When someone tells you their own story, you are bound by that exchange of trust to provide the storyteller with clear information about the project's parameters and limitations, real choices about the disposition of their testimony, and ready access to the vital materials they have generously decided to contribute. These reciprocal obligations echo the guiding principles of Occidental College's Center for Community Based Learning and its long-time Director, Celestina Castillo.
Carrying forward Dr. Espino's generosity, we are here sharing with the larger community some of the resources and links she provided us in her training workshops. We hope it will inspire similar story-gathering efforts based in local communities - and in the same spirit of justice and exchange she shared with us. We are especially proud that she decided to share her own stories of Northeast LA during the first phase of our project!
If you detect any lapses in these ethical standards, please let us know right away and share your concerns. Any mistakes manifested in this project are purely our own - we should know better!