Imagining Home: CCSF Oral History Project

Imagining Home: CCSF Oral History Project

CCSF Faculty Flex Day Presentation
Tuesday 3/1/22 12:30-2pm

Panelists: Steven Mayers, Isabela Nangca, Miguel Morales Valtiera

For the last decade, I’ve been having my students in my English 1A class at the City College of San Francisco conduct oral history research. Our class is focused on listening to and learning from the stories of people who have migrated to the U.S. After reading and writing about US history, the history of immigration law, false myths about immigrants, and personal testimonies of forced migrants who have experienced abuses to their human rights, each student interviews someone who has moved to the U.S. After making audio recordings of their interviews, they then transcribe the interviews, capturing the voice of the narrator.

Imagining Home: Stories of Migration, Exile, and Imagination from the City College of San Francisco Community is a collection of sixteen essays written by City College students and based on oral history interviews they conducted with people in the City College community – classmates, friends, family members – who have immigrated to San Francisco. The narrative essays celebrate the diversity that is San Francisco. They speak of what they go through to get here, what they go through trying to start a life here. They speak as individual and as a whole. In this workshop, we’ll have the chance to speak to a few students about their experiences participating in the project and learn about conducting oral history research with students.