Publications
Practicing Oral History with Military and War Veterans focuses predominantly on conducting oral history with men and women of recent wars and military conflicts.
The book provides a structured methodology for building interest and trust among veterans to conduct interviews, design oral history projects, and archive and use these oral history interviews. It includes background on the evolution of veterans oral history, the nuts and bolts of interviewing, ethical guidelines, procedures, and the overall value of veterans oral history. The methodology emphasizes how memory evolves over the years - when a veteran becomes more distant from the events of war, the experiences become individualized and personalized for each veteran based on location, time, place, and purpose of their service. The book also aims to improve understanding of the personal, ethical, and psychological issues involved in listening compassionately to veterans’ stories that may contain issues of trauma, gender, socio-economics, race, dis/ability, and ethnicity.
Practicing Oral History with Military and War Veterans is an invitation to community scholars, students, oral historians, and families of veterans to actively participate in the oral history process and to embrace methodology that may help with designing and conducting oral history projects and interviewing war veterans.
Critical Reviews
"With this superb book, Dr. Sharon Raynor has unlocked what she terms the "the transformative power involved in practicing veteran’s oral history for both the veteran and the interviewer." Raynor’s book is a beautiful intersection of two key areas: first, it is an expert how-to guide to conducting individual and group veteran’s histories; and, second, poignant meditations on the relationship of memory, trauma, and voice, as these have emerged in her own family’s experiences. This is a pathbreaking addition that will enable veterans to speak through their own voices, gain self-understanding, and illuminate the complex worlds through which veterans have journeyed."
- Harlan Joel Gradin, PhD, Scholar Emeritus, North Carolina Humanities
"To know Dr. Sharon Raynor is to witness her passion for veterans. We met when I had been awarded a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council. Dr. Raynor was selected as a mentor to help me continue my documentary work with Vietnam veterans. I was soliciting and curating, for the first time, their personal photographs and remembrances. As a Vietnam-era veteran and documentarian, I felt it was my responsibility to help them "show what they couldn’t say." Because Dr. Raynor was working on veterans oral and recorded histories as well, she was invaluable. Her most important piece of advice about my work was to first create trust - and a dialog - with the men and women. Those heartfelt guidelines that comprise this book are a gift to anyone who wants to create that safe place for veterans of all ages who, deep inside, want to share their experiences. Thank you, Dr. Raynor. Job well done!"
- Martin Tucker; Vietnam-era veteran; Photojournalist & filmmaker; Author, Vietnam Photographs From North Carolina Veterans: The Memories They Brought Home
"Through her tremendous personal connection to our Veterans, Dr. Sharon Raynor has written an insightful must-read book that serves as a powerful blueprint, comprehensively outlining the process and techniques of orally capturing the history, personal stories, and encounters of America’s heroes, our Veterans. I highly recommend this book and commend Dr. Raynor for her many contributions in support of our U.S. Armed Forces."
- Lieutenant Colonel Rob Freeman, U.S. Army
The college classroom is inevitably influenced by, and in turn influences, the world around it. In the United States, this means the complex topic of race can come into play in ways that are both explicit and implicit. Teaching Race in Perilous Timeshighlights and confronts the challenges of teaching race in the United States—from syllabus development and pedagogical strategies to accreditation and curricular reform. Across fifteen original essays, contributors draw on their experiences teaching in different institutional contexts and adopt various qualitative methods from their home disciplines to offer practical strategies for discussing race and racism with students while also reflecting on broader issues in higher education. Contributors examine how teachers can respond productively to emotionally charged contexts, recognize the roles and pressures that faculty assume as activists in the classroom, focus a timely lens on the shifting racial politics and economics of higher education, and call for a more historically sensitive reading of the pedagogies involved in teaching race. The volume offers a corrective to claims following the 2016 US presidential election that the current moment is unprecedented, highlighting the pivotal role of the classroom in contextualizing and responding to our perilous times.
Jason E. Cohen Associate Professor of English at Berea College. Sharon D. Raynor is Dean of the School of the Humanities and Social Sciences, and Professor of English at Elizabeth City State University. Dwayne A. Mack is Professor of History and Carter G. Woodson Chair in African American History at Berea College.
Critical Reviews
"An ideal curriculum textbook, Teaching Race in Perilous Times is an especially recommended addition to college and university Cultural Anthropology collections in general, and Higher Education/Continuing Education supplemental curriculum studies reading lists in particular."
— Midwest Book Review