I recently returned to the United States from one of Middlebury’s J-term trips abroad. Our group traveled to Vilnius, Lithuania and Odessa, Ukraine, spending one week in each city. I was eager to participate mostly for personal reasons; my family originally came from this corner of the world. I quickly realized though that I was in for much more than a heritage tour. This experience would really change my academic outlook too.
As a history major, I was struck by the power of oral history—studying history through firsthand, oral accounts of the events—and of the importance of geography in shaping how a community deals with its history. In my opinion, the two are inextricably linked. If a story is told well, the retelling feels as vivid for listener as the experience was for the storyteller. This usually involves giving the listener a sense of place, such as in a city, or even in a specific building. It is important to know how the surroundings looked and felt to the person in that moment.