NEH: Voices of Silicon Valley

Voices of Silicon Valley:

Using Heritage Discourse to Counteract Placelessness & Build Belonging

Voices of Silicon Valley: Using Heritage Discourse to Counteract Placelessness and Build Belonging is a multi-track project to increase access to the under-utilized, place-based oral histories of the campus’s California History Center (CHC), while also creating new oral histories, digital stories, and an educational walking tour, within a Humanities context and curriculum.

Located in the Silicon Valley, a region at the nexus of the agriculture and technology industries in Santa Clara County, on unceded land that is culturally and materially enriched by vibrant immigrant communities, the College is eager to undertake the work of crafting historical inquiry and narratives that include marginalized communities and better reflect and promote the authentic identity of Silicon Valley.

"By gathering and sharing the “raw materials of history,” the multi-track effort will highlight important stories about Silicon Valley" said Lori Clinchard, project director and Humanities chair. Clinchard, who is faculty coordinator of the California History Center, said the effort known as “Voices of Silicon Valley” will raise the center's profile as a partner and resource for other campus programs and community organizations.

"With its focus on historically marginalized groups, along with collaborations across campus and the community, the effort closely aligns with De Anza’s mission as a college" said Elvin T. Ramos, dean of Social Sciences and Humanities.

This project is funded through a National Endowment of the Humanities grant, "Voices of Silicon Valley", to California History Center at De Anza College. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this web resource do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.

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Track 1: Making Archives Accessible

In addition to paper-based collections - including a library of books, manuscripts, research papers, maps, and photos - CHC is also home to a collection of more than 400 audio- and video-taped oral histories, interviews, lectures, discussion panels, and historical talks. 

Student interns from the Humanities Mellon Scholars program will help catalog, transcribe and digitize these oral histories in the history center’s archives, so they are more accessible for students and researchers.

SEE CHC'S ORAL HISTORY RECORDINGS

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Track 2: Building Capacity

Lori Clinchard is working with other faculty members and classified professionals to develop workshops on producing oral histories and using them in the classroom. This will include workshops on digital story-telling and gathering stories that accurately represent minority groups and other historically overlooked communities. 

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Track 3: Raising Campus & Community Voices

Asian American Story-Telling in the Santa Clara Valley

This project will:

• Collect and curate stories of Asian American experiences in the Santa Clara Valley
• Work to revise the College’s Asian American and Asian Studies (AAAS) website where, along with CHC’s website, these stories will be published
• Develop historical walking tour that builds off the successful augmented reality walking tour and community art project, “The Hidden Histories of San Jose Japantown,” co-directed by the former Director of CHC, current “Places of Belonging” co-coordinator, and community liaison, Tom Izu.

Project co-directors, Mae Lee and Chesa Caparas, situate these stories within an Asian American historical context and utilize an Asian American Studies framework which emphasizes the diversity among Asian American histories are rooted in each communities’ various aspirations and concerns. The stories will be woven from two narrative threads: oral histories on the formation and development of AAAS at the College.

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The Pride Project

This project will:

• Share the stories of decades’ long LGBTQ+ organizing at the College, which has recently resulted in the opening of the Pride Center in Fall of 2022, and the stories of current students who benefit from this space.

Project coordinator and Pride Center Director, Jamie Pelusi, along with trained student interns, will conduct a series of oral history interviews chronicling the organizing work around LGBTQ+ issues at the College. In addition, the Pride Center Director will begin digital storytelling circles to capture students’ diverse experiences. The discourse around gender and sexual orientation expansiveness is ongoing and rapidly evolving. And our students, who are the creators of this knowledge, will be empowered through the opportunity to add to the historical record through telling and sharing their stories.

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Spaces of Belonging

This project will:

• Amplify the voices of people who have contributed to a sense of belonging for others in their communities.

The oral history topics will vary but will include interviews with social and cultural workers in the Silicon Valley region who have contributed to building belonging and transforming the lives their community members. This project is an intervention into the way we think about history, moving away from a static perception towards history as a process of intergenerational exchange, social justice, and cultural awareness.

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This project has been funded through a National Endowment of the Humanities grant, "Voices of Silicon Valley", to California History Center at De Anza College. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this {article, book, exhibition, film, program, database, report, Web resource}, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.