Volunteer Training:

 

AMWRII began the academic year of 2012-2013 with an Oral History Training Session on September 1. This session was designed to inform new volunteers and students’ research fellows about the goals of AMWRII and to provide some training for conducting oral interviews with Arab and Muslim Americans in the Milwaukee area. Dr. Enaya Othman began the session by providing information about the organization’s mission and also gave a brief overview of the history of Arab and Muslim immigration to the United States. Dr. Othman and Dr. Arijit Sen then proceeded to discuss the process by which AMWRII would select interviewees, and they suggested some guidelines and techniques for conducting the structured interviews. Afterwards, the group split into small sections in order to role play the interview process. Drs. Othman and Sen then discussed the importance of the consent and release of rights forms that they should have the interviewees sign. AMWRII volunteers will be going out to conduct interviews this fall, and hope to have the interviews transcribed and uploaded onto the website early next year!

Submitted by Caroline Seymour-Jorn