Check Out the DSNY Oral History Archive, Developed by Robin Nagle and Draper Students

Freshkills, March 2011 (Photo: Robin Nagle)

In spring 2011, Draper and Museum Studies students in Robin Nagle's "Oral History, Labors of Waste, and the Value of Knowledge" class had the opportunity to launch a new online oral history archive unlike any other currently in existence--one which is dedicated to New York City's Department of Sanitation and Freshkills Park. The oral history projects begun in this class have been collected into one website: the newly-launched DSNY and Freshkills Park Oral History Archive.

Over the course of the spring semester, students conducted interviews with individuals deeply involved with both the history and future of the DSNY and Freshkills Park. Interviewees featured on the website include current and retired sanitation workers and DSNY employees, spouses of sanitation workers, a former resident of Freshkills (before it was converted to a landfill), the administrator of Freshkills Park, and many others.

In the long term, Robin hopes that "the DSNY Oral History Project will have 100 voices from all corners of Sanitation life. Similarly, the Freshkills Park Oral History Project will have recollections from neighbors, workers and planners whose lives intersected with or continue to shape the Park’s future." For now, the website marks a vibrant start to a project that will undoubtedly develop and expand in the coming years.

Check out the archive's website to find out more about the motivation for the project, the narrators who shared their stories and experiences, and listen to full and excerpted interviews.

You can also read a recent article on silive.com about the project: "How Does Your Garbage Disappear from the Curb? Hear from the People Who Make It Happen."

Reminder: MA Thesis Workshop This Friday: 3/11

Master's Thesis Workshop
Friday, March 11 from 5:00 - 7:00 PM
Draper Map Room

Led by Professor Steven Moga and Robin Nagle

This workshop is primarily intended for students who are in the early phases of thesis preparation, but also for those at later stages of the process. Students will receive guidance on how to refine their topics and narrow the scope of their theses, and on some of the basic mechanics of writing their work.

RSVPs are appreciated:
Email draper.program@nyu.edu or call 212.998.8070 to let us know if you'll be attending.

Robin Nagle, Talk at NYU (Dec 8): The Twist-Ties that Bind: Garbage, New York City and You

Draper's Director, Robin Nagle, will be giving a talk entitled "The Twist-Ties that Bind: Garbage, New York City and You" next Wednesday, December 8th. The talk will be right around the corner from Draper's office at 5 Washington Place. More information is below.

***

Freshkills Park Talks
The Twist-Ties that Bind: Garbage, New York City and You
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
7:00 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

Join Dr. Robin Nagle to learn (almost) everything you ever wanted to know about garbage in New York. Discover how profoundly it connects us to each other, to history, to politics, to infrastructure and technology. Hear stories and reflections from people who shoulder its burdens. Glimpse some of its surprising secrets. Consider why we need to ignore it, and ponder the consequences of its invisibility. The insights you glean might just change forever the way you see your city.

Dr. Nagle is the anthropologist-in-residence for the Department of Sanitation. She is also director of the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University, where she teaches anthropology and urban studies. Her book Picking Up, about what it is to be a sanitation worker in New York and why you should care, will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the New York City Department of Sanitation and the John W. Draper Interdisciplinary Master's Program in Humanities and Social Thought at New York University.

NYU 5 Washington Place, Room 101
Manhattan

Location Details:
Enter on the corner of Mercer St & Washington Pl.
Nearest trains: R to 8th Street, 6 to Astor Place

For more information -- 212-788-8277 and/or doug.elliott@parks.nyc.gov

Oral History, Labors of Waste, and the Value of Knowledge (Taught by Robin Nagle)

Dear Students-

There are a lot of interesting 'Topics' seminars on offer at Draper next semester, so we'll be highlighting these over the next few weeks. First on our list is "Topics in the City: Topics in The City: Oral History, Labors of Waste, and Values of Knowledge" which will be taught by Draper's director, Robin Nagle. The course description is below; if you're interested in enrolling, please contact Robin directly at robin[dot]nagle[at]nyu[dot]edu.

***

Oral History, Labors of Waste, and the Value of Knowledge

This class uses oral history to consider the role of unappreciated labor and invisible knowledge in an urban setting. Working in collaboration with current and former members of New York City’s Department of Sanitation to, we will explore the dynamics of a historically significant work force to consider some overlooked elements of the city’s past and to become acquainted with the complexities of a vital but largely hidden infrastructure.

Oral history, both as a discipline and as a practice, serves many functions. It can be an investigatory and documentary technique, a fact-finding strategy, a professional tool, a casual practice, or a personal reflection. Methods of oral history are useful to historians, anthropologists, museum curators, educators, journalists, playwrights, and novelists, among others. Some who use oral history are quite self-conscious about the larger intellectual conversations in which it fits, while others simply find it a helpful way to learn details about particular events, individuals, or moments in time.

Within the academy, these many understandings and uses of oral history are considered through a variety of theoretical frameworks that ask questions about truth (who claims it, and who contests it), perspective (whose voice is heard, whose is ignored, by whom, in what contexts), relevance (who cares? why or why not?), bias (of everyone involved), access (to the stories, to the people telling the stories) and power (woven through the entire enterprise, but not always easy to measure). We will delve into these and related concerns throughout the semester.

At the same time, we will give equal attention to practicalities, including interview skills, research techniques, equipment choices, and transcription software and protocols.

Students will complete two life-history interviews, including transcriptions finished to deposit standards. Assignments will include journal articles, book excerpts, and examples of oral histories. Students will also be responsible for a series of reflective and analytical writing assignments as well as research outside class that will be necessary preparation for the interviews themselves.

By the end of the semester, students will have learned basic oral history methods and theories, and will be able to “read” the city with more nuance and insight. The interviews that the class gathers will become permanent records within the Sanitation Oral History Archive, a joint NYU/DSNY venture.

Interview with Robin Nagle in The Believer

Draper's director Robin Nagle was recently interviewed by The Believer on her work and research as the anthropologist-in-residence for the New York Department of Sanitation. Check out the full interview on The Believer website, here:

http://www.believermag.com/issues/201009/?read=interview_nagle