MAC 2026 Fall Symposium People, Not Projects: Oral history that centers the relationships behind the interviews.

The motto of the EMU Center For Oral History Research is People, Not Projects. In this symposium, we will emphasize the relationships behind the interviews, transcripts, and backend processing. We only record our narrators for a handful of hours or even minutes, but their influence, their authentic voice, is consistently present throughout the entirety of the oral history documentation process. When oral historians include narrators in their methodology---research, question formulation, editing, auditing, legal ramifications, metadata creation and public access---to shape and mold their recorded stories to their preference prior-to and following the interview, entirely new avenues of trust-built historical inquiry open themselves to the interviewer, researcher, and listening/reading audience. During the symposium, attendees will have an opportunity to learn about centering people in all aspects of an oral history project--understanding options for recording equipment, project development, the frontend and backend portions of a project including transcription, access and preservation.