The Obama Presidency Oral History - Incite at Columbia University

In its first installment of Project Interviews, OHR Extra! by the Oral History Review spoke to Project Manager Liz Strong and Communication Designer Chris Pandza from the Obama Presidency Oral History at Incite, Columbia University.

The Oral History Review asked Strong and Pandza why they decided to move beyond a traditional “elite” presidential oral history project to interview “ordinary people,” activists, and others (450 interviews in all), how the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted their in-person process just as they were getting started (and how they managed in spite of the special challenges the pandemic created), as well as how they developed a website design to ensure that the most famous voices do not drown out the rest.