Provost’s Office Summer Research Project

The Cleveland Regional Oral History Collection passed the 900-interview mark this summer. Using an Engaged Scholarship summer undergraduate research grant from the Cleveland State University Office of the Provost, three students spent May through August working with Dr. Mark Souther and CPHDH to collect oral histories on African American history in Greater Cleveland with a focus on the struggle for racial integration in the suburbs. History majors Timothy Klypchak and Katherine Taylor and Spanish major Bethany Hollowell completed more than fifty hours of interviews. With the assistance of key informants CSU history lecturer Dr. Donna Whyte, Cleveland Heights community activist Susan Kaeser, and Antioch Baptist Church Deacon Dorothy Rambo, the students assembled a list of more than one hundred potential interviewees. They created minute-by-minute interview logs, made digital story clips, and conducted preliminary research to support several new sites for the Cleveland Historical mobile app. Many of the clips are accessible by searching “African American” on CPHDH’s Cleveland Voices website. The entire series will be available soon via Engaged Scholarship @ CSU.

Katherine Taylor, Timothy Klypchak, and Bethany Hollowell at the poster session in the Student Center Atrium
Katherine Taylor, Timothy Klypchak, and Bethany Hollowell at the poster session in the Student Center Atrium
Mark Souther is Professor of History and Director of the Center for Public History + Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University.