Departmental Research Projects

Oral History Project

History and Description:

The Oral History Project was launched in the academic year, 1974-75 out of a recognition of the importance of supplementing documentary and other traditional sources of historical information, by first-hand oral accounts.

Objectives:

• Identification of research areas and appropriate interviewees;
• Collection, transcription and preservation of the information;
• Provision of training in oral history techniques;
• The development of local history research in the Department of History, Cave Hill Campus.

So far, about 150 interviews consisting of over 300 hours have been collected on audio cassettes. The collection has the equivalent of approximately 100 hours of transcripts. All tapes and transcripts have been indexed and transferred to the Projects Office of the Faculty of Humanities. The Oral History Project is a member of the International Oral History Association.

For further information contact the Coordinator, Dr Aviston Downes.
E-mail: ohp@uwichill.edu.bb or downesav@uwichill.edu.bb

The Documentation Project

This was initiated as a collaborative effort undertaken by the Department of History, the Cave Hill Library, the Barbados Public Library, the Department of Archives and the Cave Hill Law Library. The objective of the project is to locate in Barbados most, if not all, the major sources for the study of Barbados History. To this end each of the institutions committed a portion of its annual budget to the purchase of microfilm copies of a variety of documents which were located in foreign repositories. These documents included Colonial Office Correspondence, Barbadian newspapers, plantation accounts, planters' correspondence. It is hoped that additional funding from either the Barbados Government or international agencies will allow this project to be completed within the next few years. It is also hoped to extend the project, in a more limited form, to some of the records of some of the other Eastern Caribbean territories. The project is directed by a Committee representative of the participating institutions.