History of the COVID-19 Pandemic Oral History Project

The purpose of the HIST 2005 mini-project oral history of the COVID-19 pandemic is two-fold: First, it presents an opportunity to put into practice the key methods of oral history, including project design, interviewing, preservation, and dissemination. Second, it provides documentation (to the University of Minnesota Morris Archives) of a momentous time in global history from a local perspective. To that end, the interviews will address the perspectives and diverse personal experiences of Minnesotans who were teenagers during the early days of the pandemic. Topics may include the initial lockdown, social isolation, online schooling and other educational effects, social responses narrators encountered, health fears and impacts, emotional outcomes and mental health, and work. How did this extraordinary time shape the ordinary lives of our storytellers going forward?