One of the projects I am personally extremely interested in is collecting oral histories to show us how gender roles/identities, feelings towards sexuality (both preference and the existence of it), and overall culture changes overtime. I really want to use this method in my dissertation, eventually, to compare how HIV/AIDS shaped African American’s perception of gender, sexuality and culture now VS. the 1980s during the height of the crisis.

I would be super interested in talking about just this or opening up to talking about the importance of oral history and self-written works by the community are to shaping the “real” or “complete” history.

Some questions I would love to answer:

What are the best ways to collect oral histories?

What can they be used for in something like a written dissertation?

What are the downsides of using stories that have been shared with me and how can I minimize them?