community-based civic organizations, college students, and family historians and genealogists, shared their plans for a rich array of local oral history studies. Participants' enthusiasm confirmed our belief that oral history is a excellent means to forge partnerships between university-based researchers and the public at large, and our conviction that UNC graduate students make invaluable, and underappreciated, contributions to the life of the University and the state.
In recent months, the six workshop co-leaders have provided consulting support to local groups with active oral history projects underway. This effort has extended the SOHP's ties to groups producing new historical knowledge across the state, while also enriching the training of the doctoral students by allowing them to reach beyond the walls of the academy as a key element of their graduate training.
Building on our success, we plan to seek both permanent University support for such outreach and, in the short term, further support from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. We currently expect to offer another series of workshops during spring 2004.
