2023 Theses Master's

Discourse on Doing: Oral History as Psychohistory

Hammond, Kordell Keyandre

Discourse on Doing: Oral History as Psychohistory (2023), written by Kordell Keyandre Hammond and narrated by Kordell KeyAndre, is an autobiographical narrative prelude: Reading, writing and listening to the authors' own autobiographical prose as a psychoanalytic medium of self-study.* Hammond's approach to doing oral history as psychohistory, also known as doing narrative as medicine is loosely based on humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers' client centered therapy.

Through fifteen chapters or episodes, organized within three self-contained movements, this work generously explores Race and identity in American education settings, from a first-person point of view. It challenges the notion that Whites and Blacks, or all men, are created equal. It highlights the promise of personal power when restoring inner strength and its revolutionary impact. It also argues how subjective opinions are by definition rooted in truth and therefore cannot be wrong or right; they just are. The work being written “for the ear,” intended to be read or spoken aloud, in the first person is a natural fit for expository, critical, and researched writing, helping to develop style and voice in what can often be dry or impersonal genres.

Finally, the significance of this research in particular, An Americana Issue, lies in its contribution to developing a repository of relevant first-person accounts of American cultural racism, using oral history theory and methodology to democratize the process of source material making and curricula development.** The research questions guiding this inquiry are designed to explore the field of socio-historical linguistics and contemporary North-American discourse analysis. Scholar-practitioners in this field use sociolinguistic research methods to explain historical change.

The A View Through Them Initiative is a project devoted to analysis and construction of an archive that chronicles the changes in meaning-making over time. In order to understand the complexities of the effects of media messages on attitudes of public health, public opinion, public memory and public school education, it is crucial to examine the first-person accounts of educators of color—themselves—and closely listen to understand their personal as well as professional interpretations of the Americana issues that be, and probable solutions, by asking why.

*NARRATIVE PRELUDE - "on and off that marvel stage", is an aural thesis from An Americana Issue Oral History Project. This work is written for the An Americana Issue Oral History Project collection of the KeyAndre Archives, and is the prelude to the podcast A View Through Them, the podcast.

**Chapter/Episode 6 through 10 source material, the methodology section, is withheld or disassembled from the abridged version of this work. The KeyAndre Keyword Research And Analysis Methodology (2024) – Patent Pending with the U.S. Copyright Office.

Keywords: nonfiction, narrative medicine, oral history, public history, humanities, curricula, sociology, race, class, racism, colonialism, democide, caste, genocide, imperialism, gender, identity, education, self-education, psychology, psychohistory, human rights, memoir