Making History with “New Yawk Tawk”

Two New York City Seminar Sections “New Yawk Tawk” at MMC Make History

New York City Seminar students at MMC rolled up their sleeves for the New York Public Library to help transcribe oral histories of native New Yorkers. The Oral History Project Manager Alexandra Kelly invited the “New Yawk Tawk” sections led by Profs. Ann Jablon and Sue Behrens to listen to recorded interviews about life in Greenwich Village and Harlem. Each student annotated a specific interview by identifying key terms to guide future researchers to significant people, places, and events discussed by these natives. 

In addition, the students in Sue Behrens’s section were some of the first to work with software that opens up automated transcripts for correction. Their input was noted down by researchers from NYPL Labs and The Moth and will go into the next iteration of the program.

Inspired by the importance of oral history as a method of “preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people,” Ann Jablon’s students collected an oral history from MMC seniors recounting their first year experiences. Students presented their findings, “MMC–The Real Deal,” to the class and created a Face Book page to archive the interviews. 

Pictured here are the students at the Jefferson Market (Jablon’s section) and at the main branch of the NYPL (Behrens’s section). 

Read more about this project from the New York Public Library.

Published: December 16, 2015

Contact

ajablon@mmm.edu
sbehrens@mmm.edu

MMC’s Communication Sciences and Disorders Program Featured in Newsweek Online

Marymount Manhattan’s College Speech Pathology and Audiology program has been listed as one of the nation’s top programs for communication and language disorders!
Students conduct hearing exam