Immigrant narratives project oral histories

In the spring of 2020, students in Dr. Allison Fagan’s course, ENG 360: Immigrant Narratives, conducted four oral history interviews with immigrants living in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The following spring of 2021, Dr. Fagan’s ENG 360 class students conducted five oral history interviews with local immigrants. In spring of 2022, ENG 360 students conducted three oral history interviews. Dr. Fagan selected interview participants, and students attended Institutional Review Board (IRB) training for research involving human subjects. Many of the 2020 and 2021 interviews were conducted virtually amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Students conducted original research, designed treatments and slates of questions, recorded, edited, and transcribed the interviews. Students received informed consent at the time of the interview, and gift agreements were secured upon review and approval of transcripts and recordings by interview participants. The objective of the assignment was to deepen students’ understanding of authority and agency in storytelling and amplify the voices of immigrant storytellers. The project culminated in a podcast series entitled “Harrisonburg 360: Real People. Real stories. One Community,” accessible at https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/immigrantharrisonburg/.

From the Immigrant Harrisonburg website: “Every person deserves a chance to share their story, and we, as a class, are privileged to share these stories with you in hopes of expanding perceptions of what it means to be an immigrant in Harrisonburg.”

As of 2019, foreign-born persons comprise 17.1% of the Harrisonburg city population. This collection contains oral history interviews with individuals who emigrated to the United States between 1975 and 2017 and sheds light on the Harrisonburg immigrant experience. Immigrants from Syria, Iraqi Kurdistan, Vietnam, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, and El Salvador are represented.