For Adults and Older Teens

This workshop will cover basic skills and approaches to a method central to ethnographic cultural documentation: the interview. Whether you are gathering family stories, conducting an oral history of a community, or doing survey fieldwork on folklife and traditions, you will likely want to talk with people in order to gather information. To do this, though, you will want to identify whom to talk with, develop appropriate questions, generate release (or permission) forms, record the interview for accuracy and preservation (among other reasons), and have a strategy for retrieving information efficiently from those recordings. During this workshop, participants will learn in an interactive manner about all of those steps from professional staff at the American Folklife Center/Library of Congress, who will offer tips, provide examples, lead exercises, and answer questions throughout the 2-hour session.

This workshop is part of a collaboration between George Mason University’s Folklore Program and Calvert County. This semester (spring 2021), George Mason students, under the supervision of folklorists and professor Dr. Lisa Gilman, will be doing the project “Calvert County: The Culture of Agriculture Past and Present.” Students will conduct virtual interviews with community members, gather photographs and other documentation, and produce podcasts, videos, and other materials for use by the county. This workshop, provided by the American Folklife Center, integrates training students with providing opportunities for Calvert County residents to develop interviews skills, as part of this larger project.

Free 

Presented by the American Folklife Center

Zoom details will be provided in your confirmation email after you register.

We can accommodate 100 people in this workshop.