Oral History Program interns reflect on summer work
The Stanford Historical Society funded Stanford students Tobi Bankole, Ellie Luchini, and Shuvi Jha as Oral History Program interns this summer, marking the seventh year of this unique, hands-on learning experience in public history.
Founded in 1978, the Oral History Program explores the institutional history of the university through interviews with faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, and other members of the community. The program relies on student and volunteer interviewers and editors who have helped complete over 1,100 oral history interviews since its inception.
Under the supervision of program staff Natalie Marine-Street and Makeda Barr-Brown, the interns conducted interviews and prepared interview materials for the Stanford faculty/staff, alumni, and community oral history projects for deposit into the University Archives. They participated in field trips to the University Archives, the Archive of Recorded Sound, and the Cantor Arts Center where they had the opportunity to learn more about Stanford history, preserving sound recordings, and curating materials for exhibition. The interns also conceptualized their own project on Pro-Palestine activism on campus during the 2023-2024 academic year. They were able to complete five interviews for their project, which is part of a larger effort by OHP to document recent events on campus and their impact on the community.
Oral History Program Assistant Makeda Barr-Brown noted, “This is the first time our summer interns have started their own project over the summer. It was amazing to see their passion for their work and their ability to problem solve throughout the project. The Oral History Program interns also were vital in helping us reach our processing goals for the fiscal year, including ensuring our 2023 alumni reunion interviews were processed by our annual deadline.”
At the end of the summer, the interns presented on their summer experience. The presentations were attended by Historical Society board members, University Archives staff, and Oral History Program staff and volunteers.
Tobi Bankole (Class of 2024 and 2025) recently graduated with a BA in history and will complete her coterm in history during the 2024-2025 academic year. Bankole edited transcripts, wrote abstracts, and formatted interview materials for various projects including the Alumni Stories, Stanford VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab, and the Stanford Asian American Pacific Islander projects. She also conducted interviews for the Stanford VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab and Pro-Palestine Activism projects.
When describing her experience working on the Stanford VMWare Women’s Leadership Innovation Lab project, Bankole stated, “I enjoyed this project because I worked at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research, where the lab originally started, two years ago, and this is one aspect of its history I wasn’t aware of. I also had the opportunity to conduct my own interview for this project. I felt somewhat prepared because of my familiarity with the other interviews, but was still a bit apprehensive since it felt a great deal more formal than when I interviewed my peers or came up with questions for them. However the experience was really great and felt like a culmination of everything I’d learned over the summer.”
Ellie Luchini (Class of 2025) is pursuing a degree in history and archeology with a minor in human rights. Luchini processed interviews for the Alumni Stories, Faculty/Staff, Arizona Garden, and Stanford Asian American Pacific Islander projects, and conducted interviews for the Pro-Palestine Activism project.
When reflecting on her experience, Luchini stated, “Being a part of this program was an amazing experience, and I am so excited to continue this work during the school year. I wanted to do this program because I believe oral history retains people’s voices in a way the written word does not. You cannot hear someone’s inflections or stutters in the written word, the spoken word allows us to retain someone’s humanness in amazing ways.”
Shuvi Jha (Class of 2024 and 2025) recently graduated with a BS in computer science along with interdisciplinary honors in feminist, gender, and sexuality studies. She is currently working towards an MS in computer science. She worked on interviews for a variety of projects and used her computer science skills in a collection remediation project where she identified older interviews in the collection that were missing transcripts. Her work allowed the program to standardize interview metadata and prepare for testing AI solutions for producing transcripts.
In Jha’s final reflection paper, she remarked, “One of the core lessons I learned is the power of oral history as a methodology to situate personal experiences within broader social and historical contexts. This process is not merely about recording facts but involves a dynamic, co-constructed relationship between the interviewer and narrator. I came to understand that successful oral history work relies heavily on thoughtful planning, intentionality, and deep listening. These elements are crucial in ensuring that the stories captured are authentic and resonate with the lived experiences of the interviewees.”
For more information about internship opportunities for Stanford students, visit the SHS website.
