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Vol. 38, No. 18 |
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3-25-2008 Telling tales — in and out of schoolStudent historians help give a lasting voice to the University District
But that’s not a problem for many long-time residents of the University District, the densely populated swath of homes and businesses that borders Ohio State on three sides. As part of a broader effort to capture and preserve memories of the area’s heyday, three university faculty have launched two new courses designed to gather oral histories of people who have lived, worked and worshiped in the district. “We really want to document that the University District is not ‘a sea of dirty rainwater,’” said Galey Modan, a sociolinguist who with folklorist Ray Cashman taught the first class of would-be oral historians winter quarter. Senior Lecturer Martha Sims will be teaching a second class in spring quarter. The “dirty rainwater” phrase was used by Columbus Dispatch columnist Ann Fisher to describe the area in a March 7 column about the oral histories project. She also referred to the district as a “Pottersville,” plagued by “warts” and “filth.” Modan says that characterization is unfair. “It’s a very complex community with lots of different sub-groups and scenes going on, lots of interesting stuff happening, and we wanted to capture the complexity that contradicts the citywide stereotype of the area.” Their ideals are in line with those of the University District Organization, a group that since 1971 has been the voice for neighborhood planning and development in the campus area. The UDO first approached Ohio State with the idea to do the oral history project as a complement to their “History Shared, History Saved” community archives initiative. First announced in 2006, the archives project is a partnership with the Ohio Historical Society to preserve photos, maps, documents and other memorabilia from the University District. Among the memorabilia will be the audio interviews and transcripts of oral histories gathered by the students in Modan, Cashman and Sims’ classes. Before setting the first band of 24 students loose on the district, the instructors first had to teach them some essentials about proper fieldwork and interviewing techniques. The would-be interviewers learned to craft questions — none of which were supposed to be longer than five seconds — that would elicit meaningful conversation. “Things like, ‘How do you get on with your neighbors?’ and ‘Do you remember when you first moved into the neighborhood?’” Cashman said. “And then how to ask follow-up questions that would generate a narrative.” Both professors were surprised to learn just how terrified many students were about talking with strangers. They also were amused by how “student-centric” they were in their first batch of questions. “In the beginning, all their questions were, ‘What’s your relationship to the university?” or ‘What do you think of students?” Modan recalled. Once the students were armed with skills and a pool of relevant questions, they were given the names of some residents who’d agreed to be interviewed. Each student was required to turn in three interviews, which ranged in length from 30 minutes to two hours, and to extract from that material at least four stories, or specific tellings of an event. Analysis of the narratives revealed some common themes, such as the intricacy of community interaction and the tensions that exist between people who have contrasting views on what it means to be a good neighbor. Many people expressed concern and anger over how the apparent mindlessness of realtors and builders through the years resulted in profound damage to the community, both structurally and interpersonally. Cashman said the class experience helped open students’ eyes to the possibility that they were contributing to something larger than themselves. “One of the biggest services we’ve done for our students is to challenge them to rethink some of their preconceptions about the University District,” he said. “Because we’ve all seen the dirty rainwater. But now they’ve also seen quite a bit else.”
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