The DVP Course: Learning Oral History in a Digital Age (HIST 10.03)
When the DVP was founded in 2014, training for student interviewers was provided via a summer term training program designed by the DVP leadership team. In 2020, this training program was reorganized and expanded into a for-credit Dartmouth History course. Entitled The Dartmouth Vietnam Project: Learning Oral History in a Digital Age (HIST 10.03), this course was co-designed by Prof. Edward Miller and Dr. Bryan Winston to provide students with an in-depth introduction to the theory and practice of oral history.
Students in HIST 10.03 grappled with questions about narrative, subjectivity, memory, historical truth, and the ethics of oral history. In addition, students received training in oral history interviewing techniques, as well as instruction in transcription and digital audio recording practices. During the term, each enrolled student conducted their first DVP interview with a member of the Dartmouth/Upper Valley community.
Students in HIST 10.03 did not take a final exam. Instead, each of them was required to design and build an online digital exhibit. In preparation for this assignment, the students were trained in the use of Omeka-S, a content management system widely used in digital humanities projects. In addition to providing access to the audio and transcript of the student's oral history interview, each exhibit also provided context and interpretive perspective by connecting the interview to other historical evidence collected from other sources and collections (including other oral history archives).
For examples of digital exhibits designed by students in the Winter 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2023 editions of HIST 10.03, click on the links below.
Making a Living: Work and Its Implications in Post-War Saigon by Daniela Armas '20
"But it never felt like a burden" | the Sacrifice of Caregiving in the Vietnam War by Julia Huebner '20
"A War We Had No Business Being In:" The Military and the Antiwar Movement by Sophia Kocher '21
"The Best Thing I Ever Did": Evaluating Positive Aspects of the Navy Corpsman Experience from the Vietnam War by Dominic Respucci '20
"The Gift of Freedom" and Other Stories: Narratives about Rescue and Migration during and after the Vietnam War by Nicole Tiao '20
"We Build, We Fight": Navy Seabees and Civic Action in the Vietnam War by Sarah Sim '21
“Thats How We Survived”: Resilience, Community, and Intolerance in the Lives of LGBTQ Servicewomen during the Vietnam War era by Charlotte Driscoll '21
"Half of my fraternity brothers were ROTC": The Military, Vietnam, and Dartmouth in the 1960s by J.P. Mortenson '21
Narrative Style and the Use of Oral Testimony in "The Vietnam War" by David Velona '21
Duty, Honor, Resistance: The History of ROTC at Dartmouth from the Cold War Era to Today by Claire Betzer '23, Connor Norris '25, and Kate Packard '22
Standing Up for What They Believe by Brandyn Humberstone '22
"A Different Category Than Most": Nuances of the Enlisted Experience by Ben Gulihur '24 and Ben Katz '26
Anti-War Activism During the Vietnam War: Understanding the Ways in Which We Protested by Dashiell Advincula '25, Patrick Howard '23, Katherine Lynch '25, and Hudson Rogers '25
A Vietnam War Correspondent and American Reporters' Perception of the "Viet Cong" by Madeleine Codding '25