Here is a recording of a talk I did two years ago about how I shifted my oral history instructional methods in the fall of 2020.

“When the pandemic hit, Philip F. Napoli, associate professor and chair of the Brooklyn College Department of History, knew that this semester’s oral history class was going to present unique challenges for both pedagogy and technical operation.

In this session, students Malkah Schack, Xander Raff, and Professor Napoli discuss their experiences and lessons learned from a remote semester. Students learned about oral history and were responsible for conducting at least 7 hours of interviews with 5 unique narrators culminating in creating their own podcast episode. Xander explored mental health with veterans, and Malkah explored clothing as a form of resistance. They discuss the tools they used, such as TheirStory for remote interviewing and transcription, PixStori for short-form testimonies combining image and sound, and Audacity and Garage Band for composition. They also discuss lessons learned in remote interviewing.

The webinar was facilitated by TheirStory’s Founder & CEO, Zack Ellis.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66NA3m2kmuI

In the academic year 2023-2024, I will serve as the interim Dean of the Brooklyn College School of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

I served as chair of the Brooklyn College Department of History from the fall of 2020 until the spring of 2023.

HIST. 4200 Oral History Theory & Practice
Course Code: 5182
Tuesday and Thursday 6:05 PM-7:45 PM
PFN
For course permission, email Philip.napoli@gmail.com

This course is an investigation in to the processes and procedures of oral history, and the ways this technique can be employed in the study of history. Together we will learn how to conduct interviews and create appropriate archival records about them and discuss the various ways oral testimony can be used.

Because oral history is a technique, this is a project-based course in which you will be learning theory and method, not

Today I am speaking at John Jay College, stepping in on behalf of my good friend Anthony Wallace. Wallace was the scheduled speaker but he is ill. This is the Annual African-American Military Heritage Luncheon.

Wallace served as a sergeant in 1st Cav Division of the United States Army in Vietnam in 1970. He was wounded April 15, almost 50 years ago.

#vietnamwar #militaryhistory

On 2/18, I gave a guest lecture in Emily Horowitz

I don’t often receive email about Bringing It All Back Home, so when I do, it is a treat. I found this in my Facebook messages this morning:

“Good Morning Phil, So I thought I had read “Bringing it all Back Home”. I hadn’t, I was wrong. I finished it last night at about 2:00 AM. I found myself in your book, such commonalities as to be creepy. The event that stirred me to activism was the Welcome home parade for the Iranian hostages. I also went on a 25-year bender, drinking myself into oblivion nearly every night. I joined the VVAW and left because they became too radical. I “Found” VVA at a street fair in Queens I was covering for a local newspaper. Pat Toro recruited me. Clean and sober since 2003, I got really active in VVA. I still have nightmares (Sleeping and waking) but I’m in a group at the Vet Center that meets weekly. I thank you for writing “Bringing it All Back Home” and I’ll be telling others about it. If a Vietnam Veteran Can’t see himself in the book, he isn’t looking. Thanks once again.”