Welcome to the Walsh University Pandemic Stories Oral History Project! I am Dr. Rachel Constance, Associate Professor of History and the Director for the Institute for Community Health here at Walsh University. My fields of specialization include both World History, and the History of Medicine--specifically, the study of global pandemics. As part of my broader interest in pandemic history, I have partnered with the Renacci Center for Civic Engagement, the Food Design Institute, and the Walsh University Archives to create an archival collection of stories from Walsh faculty, staff, students, alumni, and the extended community (which includes anyone, Walsh affiliate or not, who wishes to communicate their stories for permanent record). I am soliciting and collecting oral histories, that is, stories written by you, in order to share and preserve your personal experiences living through this once in a generation pandemic. These stories are being collected via SurveyMonkey, and can be shared as written experiences, audio files, or video files. You can submit the survey multiple times, if you wish, documenting the events that affect you over the course of the pandemic, or sharing different experiences, or your feelings. It is up to you. As the stories will be stored as digital files, online, in the Walsh University Archives, the survey asks for demographic information--however, this information is optional. You can submit anonymously. I do ask that if you use the names of other people in your stories, that you anonymize that information (usually marked by a name with a * next to it, to indicate pseudonyms), to protect the privacy of people who have not agreed to fill out the information. The first two pages of the survey are a welcome and the consent form, and the third page lists several questions from which you can choose to answer (you do not need to answer all of them). There is no length minimum or maximum--you can share only positive, only negative, or mixed reactions or experiences.
If you are not sure what you should write, here is a link to a Google doc with two sample stories. One is my own, and one is by a college friend of mine from Michigan, my own extended network, shared with his permission.
The link to the story collection survey is here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/RSK9QZ2
I look forward to reading your stories!
