Volunteering, Interviewing, Researching, Transcribing, and Exhibiting

A core aspect of this course is the service you will be providing the residents of the Amsterdam Houses. This service will take two forms: (A) direct volunteering and (B) the historical research you generate through both the oral histories and archival research you conduct; such research will bolster the tenants' arguments and efforts towards landmark status for the Amsterdam Houses.

Your historical research will culminate in an exhibit of the history of the Amsterdam Houses that will appear in the community Center of the Amsterdam Houses.

Between October 4 and Wed Nov 29 although we will not meet as a class (except for , you will:

1) Provide six class periods (or their equivalent) of direct volunteer labor (described below) to the senior residents of Amsterdam house

2) Interview, along with the oral historian for this course, one of the senior residents of the Amsterdam Houses

3) Transcribe two oral history interviews, one conducted by yourself and one by either Prof. Adina Back or Prof. Umbach

4) Conduct archival research and describe your findings in a summary that will serve as the basis for the portion of the exhibit you create

Between December 4th and 18th, you will

5) Create an exhibit on the history of the Amsterdam Houses for display in the community center of the Amsterdam Houses; during this period you will be meeting individually with Prof. Umbach.

Each of these four components is described below

1. Volunteering:

By October 2nd, you will be assigned six dates for volunteer sessions that will take place at the Amsterdam Houses during our scheduled class time, unless you have been assigned to "telephone reassurance" (in which case you can provide the service from any location with a telephone -- see below ) or "heavy duty cleaning" (in which case you only have to provide four hours of service -- see below)

This volunteer work will take one of these forms:

A) Escorts You may be asked during your volunteer time to escort senior residents to nearby stores or other locations.

B) Kitchen Service Students not needed for escort service will help out in the kitchen.

C) Heavy-Duty Cleaning Students who wish to complete their service component in fewer hours (the equivalent of three and half rather than six class) will likely be able to make arrangements for heavy-duty cleaning. Students performing this work will help clean out the apartments of seniors who have accumulated so many items their apartments now pose a fire risk. This may require one or two longer work sessions on a weekend.

D) Telephone Reassurance, students who volunteer for this service will need to train for 30 minutes at the Amsterdam Houses. The training will occur on one of the scheduled M/W 11:05 – 12:20 times, but the actual service will be provided off-site and may occur at different hours. Students performing this service will call residents to provide them with essential information. Spanish speakers will be particularly valuable for this service.

Although your volunteeer service is not graded, successful completion of this course requires that you do a satisfactory job on this aspect of the course.

2. Interviewing:

You will be assigned one class period in which you will conduct an oral history of a senior resident of the Amsterdam Houses. These interviews will occur at the community center for the Amsterdam Houses -- the Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center (details will be provided)-- and you will accompanied by Prof. Adina Beck, an oral historian who will be working on this project with us. The interview will last the whole class period and likely Prof. Beck will continue asking questions for about half hour after you leave to go to your next class.

Although the interviews are not graded, successful completion of this course requires that you do a satisfactory job on this activity.

3. Transcribing:

The various oral histories conducted for this project will need to be transcribed before they can be put to use to help the residents in their efforts to achieve landmark status for the residents. Because you will be, in essence, creating much of the evidentiary record for their case, it is important that this work be done with care. Accordingly, we have set aside both class and homework time to prepare these transcripts.

Within a week after having conducted the interview you will be provided with an audio cd copy of the interview. You will have one week after receiving the interview to transcribe the interview.

You will also be given an additional oral history conducted by either Prof. Adina Back or Prof. Umbach for transcribing; again, you will have one week to transcribe this interview.

Finally, you will be writing and submitting to blackboard a "Theme Summary" of both of your transcribed interviews, which will allow your classmates to easily identify the contents of your interviews so that they can employ them in their portion of the history exhibit (see 5 below)

Although the transcripts are not graded, successful completion of this course requires that you do a satisfactory job on both of these projects.

4. Researching:

Using documents assembled by Prof. Umbach as well as other other library resources, you will conduct archival research into the history of the Amsterdam Houses towards both supporting the residents' case for landmark status and the museum exhibit you will be creating. You will be writing summaries of this research as you conduct it so that you can demonstrate your progress.

Details we be posted here regarding this component by October 4th

5. Creating an Exhibit (12/04 - 12/18):

Either alone or with a partner, you will create a portion of the exhibit the class will create on the history of the Amsterdam Houses; this exhibit will go on display in the Amsterdam Houses on 12/19.

Your portion of the exhibit will address a particular theme (for example, "Race and the Amsterdam Houses 1940 - 1960") and will weave together excerpts from the oral interviews you conduct and the findings -- including photographs and newspaper articles -- from your archival research.

Your exhibit will count for 40% of your final grade -- although the grades for your research summaries (see "Researching") above will represent one quarter of that 40% (or 10 Fritz Points).

Prof. Umbach will help you assemble your materials into a physical panel for display.