An innovative collaboration between two state institutions guided Public Health students in capturing and preserving important pandemic insights for the future.
Listen to brief clips from four of the Pandemic Perspectives oral history interviews on the WSHS YouTube channel:
Oral history clipsRead excerpts and view video clips from the students’ work at this online exhibit devoted to the stories, photographs, and audio collected as part of this project:
Pandemic Perspectives Online ExhibitionWashington State Historical Society staff worked with associate teaching professor Anjulie Ganti, who has master’s degrees in public health and social work, and teaching assistant Nola Liu, a graduate student working toward a master of urban planning, at the University of Washington School of Public Health. Under the guidance of these partners, 24 students in their final year of the Public Health/Global Health major documented and preserved stories of the pandemic through oral histories, artifacts, and photovoices (images with captions that express points of view).
This unique student project provided the opportunity for Historical Society to add voices not traditionally represented to its permanent collection, thus ensuring a broader range of authentic experiences are included in the historic records.
As the inaugural exhibition related to this global health crisis, Pandemic Perspectives offers the first look into these diverse and exciting new additions to the WSHS collection. You’ll come away with a clearer, more diverse understanding of the reach and ramifications of this global crisis as it played out right here at home.
The students’ work will be added to the permanent collection at the Washington State Historical Society and preserved for generations to come.
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Become a memberOur thanks: WSHS exhibitions and programs are generously supported by Columbia Bank, Humanities Washington, KNKX, The Murdock Foundation, the Port of Tacoma, and our members.