The COVID-19 Oral History Project

Humanistic Methodologies for Social Good

The National Humanities Center launched its COVID-19 Oral History Project in 2021 to capture and preserve experiences of a unique time in our medical and social history. The project is dedicated to representing the diverse perspectives of those who have been directly involved in pandemic response efforts in hospitals and clinics but whose stories have gone untold.

To accomplish this goal, we have partnered with institutions and individuals across the country to train student interviewers to ethically and responsibly collect oral histories. This is the first step in a larger initiative to use personal narratives to catalyze conversations at the local and national levels and influence positive structural changes in healthcare.

Mission Statement Get Involved Current Data Student Reflections Project Leadership News and Events

Mission Statement

The COVID-19 Oral History Project connects the next generation of humanists and healthcare professionals with today’s frontline workers to tell the unheard stories of the COVID-19 pandemic. The project is committed to interviewing diverse medical professionals around the country and building strong connections between student interviewers and their local medical communities. We believe that narrative medicine has the power to address issues of equity and accessibility in healthcare, and we are dedicated to facilitating conversations that will catalyze positive structural change.

Voices from the Project

“I hope as we recover from the pandemic that we are really thinking about how to put more money into building stronger communities, better public health, better education. With the pandemic there is more of a sense coming from everyone about the importance of social justice and that keeps me hopeful as we move forward, because it is really the tragedies in life that help us reflect and re-engage and prioritize better.” —Uyenvy Pham, Washington

Get Involved

If you would like more information about the project or are interested in scheduling a consultation with us, please use this form to get in touch.

If you are a student who would like to be an interviewer in your area, or if you are a medical professional who would like to share your story and we have not yet launched a partnership in your area, please connect with us here.

COVID-19; Medical Humanities; Oral History — University of Washington student Emma Linde interviews Jeanette Hungerford, a Certified Nurse Assistant at St. Luke Community Hospital in Ronan, Montana.

Current Data

7

states

75

video interviews

46

audio interviews

122

transcripts

Our audiovisual and transcript-based holdings will be published in full archival form in late spring 2024 through a separate site currently under development.

Participating Institutions

Boston College
Duke University
Eastern Michigan University
University of California, Irvine
University of Washington

Voices from the Project

“I truly believe that the term ‘hero’ for healthcare workers being tossed around so freely during the pandemic has been flattering to all of us whether it’s a physician, a CNA, a pharmacist, whoever. But also, too, I want to say I think we should have had that title or should have been given that pat on the back sooner than now. We’ve all been heroes and I think we’ll continue to be heroes. How much the public wants to amplify it has yet to be determined, but we’ll be there.” —Anonymous

Student Reflections

This virtual exhibit contains selected footage from video-based interviews conducted as part of the project alongside research posters and written reflections produced by medical students at Duke University and the University of Washington, who acted as interviewers for the project. Together, this material sheds light on the ways that the humanities are enriching medical education today and allowing the clinicians of the future to engage deeply with their professional communities, respond to structural forms of inequity, and prepare for new challenges of caring.

COVID-19; Medical Humanities; Oral History

Project Leadership

Jacqueline Kellish

Jacqueline Kellish (Project Founder and Director) is director of public engagement for the National Humanities Center. She holds a PhD in English from Duke University, as well as an MA in the social sciences and a BA in political science from the University of Chicago. Kellish’s work is motivated by her commitment to using humanistic and social scientific methods to bring together scholarly research and social justice initiatives. She has designed and taught interdisciplinary courses on the role and cultural representations of women in twentieth-century media and on the politics and ethics of the literary canon. Previously, she served as the associate editor for the Duke University Press journal NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction.

Jane McGrail is the head of education and outreach for the COVID-19 Oral History Project. She is a PhD candidate in rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and holds a BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross. McGrail is committed to building bridges between academic and public communities in service of social justice. Her publicly engaged scholarship has been funded by the Humanities for the Public Good Initiative and the Maynard Adams Fellowship for the Public Humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. McGrail has designed and taught both writing and community-based learning courses and works closely with the COVID-19 Oral History Project’s student interviewers.

Robin Haley is the head of digital collections for the COVID-19 Oral History Project and the NHC’s technical services and metadata librarian. Haley earned her MLS at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a concentration in archives and records management and her bachelor’s in information systems from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Since 2018, she has implemented and supported digital asset management and digital preservation best practices at UNC–Wilmington, UNC–Chapel Hill and the State Archives of North Carolina. Haley designed the database for the COVID-19 Oral History Project and manages the project’s digital holdings. She also leads the project’s metadata and transcription efforts, specifically focusing on accessibility and preservation.

Voices from the Project

“Nobody knew the right thing to do but everybody was willing to do it. What we never saw on the news was the people risking their lives and the people that built masks. Those people worked for 48 hours straight and went home for 6 hours and went back and did it again. There was so much sacrifice and humanity and just general care for each other that I don’t think got any recognition whatsoever. [All of these] unsung heroes were just doing an amazing job and they weren’t doing it for the money. They were doing it because they wanted to help, they wanted to be part of the solution, and none of them got any recognition. Watching those people do the best they could with nothing and still manage to smile once in a while and be kind… if there was one thing that was recognized after all was said and done, I would want it to be that.” —Orion Pullen, South Dakota

News and Events

The National Humanities Center’s 2022 conference, A Crisis of Caring: The Humanities and Our Health, sought to consider the ways that knowledge drawn from humanities disciplines and methodologies can inform and help address the ongoing crisis in healthcare. This virtual conference featured presenters from across the medical field and the humanities disciplines, and catalyzed conversations about the role of humanistic approaches in the future of medicine.

Crisis of Caring