Daggar Awarded Project Pericles Grant to Advance Oral History at Ursinus

While most people consume history through visual mediums, one of the most important ways to understand stories of the past is through the voices of those who lived it. One Ursinus College professor has received the opportunity to deepen her understanding of oral history while supporting community engagement.

Associate Professor of History Lori Daggar was awarded a Faculty Leader Grant from Project Pericles. The program, led by Ursinus Assistant Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities Christian Rice, focuses on supporting community engagement in instruction by helping bring community engagement projects into existing courses. Daggar plans to expand her knowledge of oral history to enhance her teaching in the “History, Theories, and Methods” course .

“One of the fun parts about working with The Welcome Home Project is that I’ve gotten to stretch my expertise a little bit by picking up new skills,” Daggar said. “Oral history is one of those new skills that I’m trying to learn more about and train myself so I can ethically and responsibly do that work.”

In conjunction with The Welcome Home Project, Daggar, along with college librarian Diane Skorina, has led efforts to create an archive in the Myrin Library documenting the life of Delaware Tribe of Indians Elder John Thomas. In the fall semester, Daggar’s students in her “Native American Activism and Red Power” course conducted interviews with Elder Thomas to help further build out the archive. She hopes future interviews will allow her students to engage with his story in greater depth.

“I’m going to be better equipped to coach students in the interviewing techniques and ethics needed when working with subjects of oral history,” Daggar said.

Thanks to the grant, Daggar will attend the National Council on Public History conference in Montreal in March. There, she will attend panels and workshops on oral history and gain hands-on experience.

“Oral history is a time-honored way of sharing past experiences for a lot of Indigenous cultures,” Daggar said. “I don’t think we can responsibly talk about these histories without considering Indigenous descendants’ oral history and the ways they talk about the past.”

Daggar’s current work with Elder Thomas will continue, but she hopes to expand her efforts to include other citizens of the Delaware Tribe of Indians soon.