Narrating Katrina Through Oral History

"Narrating Katrina Through Oral History" is the title of a continuing initiative under the direction of Dr. Lisa Pruitt, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Albert Gore, Sr., Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University .  The project was initiated at the request of Executive Vice President and Provost Dr. Kaylene Gebert, who also provided supplemental funding to cover project costs. 

When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in August 2005, it soon became apparent that this event would go on record as one of the worst natural disasters in American history.  The hurricane forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people, creating a "Katrina diaspora" scattered across the United States.  Several thousand people relocated to middle Tennessee, either temporarily or permanently. Furthermore, hundreds of people from middle Tennessee have traveled to the Gulf Coast as volunteer responders.  It is the goal of this project to create a documentary record of the experiences of as many of these people as possible through the medium of oral history.  Gore Center staff, students, and volunteers have conducted interviews.  Tapes and transcripts of the interviews are a permanent part of the Gore Center 's Middle Tennessee Oral History Collection.

Interviewers ask evacuees to describe their experiences evacuating, staying in shelters or with family or friends, re-establishing their lives in middle Tennessee (whether temporarily or permanently), their perceptions of media coverage of the events, their evaluation of various agencies and organizations who responded to the disaster and with whom they had direct experience, and their hopes for their own futures and the future of the affected region. Volunteer responders are asked to describe their motives for volunteering, the logistics of volunteering, the details of their work, their perceptions of the scope and impact of the disaster, their perceptions of media coverage, their perceptions of the performances of various agencies and organizations involved in responding with whom they had direct contact, and their feelings about the experience of volunteering in response to a major disaster. 

To date (6/1/07), 53 interviews have been completed.  Twenty-seven of those have been with people directly or indirectly affected by the hurricane, five with individuals in middle Tennessee who sheltered family members, two with students from middle Tennessee who were attending college in New Orleans, and twenty-six with responders.  The responders have included church volunteers, high school and college students on fall or spring alternative break, members of the National Guard, American Red Cross volunteers, the director of the Tennessee Emergency Management Administration, two representatives of the American Association of State and Local History who assessed the impact on cultural institutions, and a licensed veterinary medical technician on FEMA's veterinary response team.

The interviews are also included in the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank project organized by George Mason University and the University of New Orleans.  

To listen to the interviews on the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank website click here: http://www.hurricanearchive.org/browse/?collection=103

To view the list of interviewees and read excerpts, click here: Interview List.

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