South Asian Oral History Project

Oral history often allows us to experience a world where few primary sources exist. This can be seen with the rise of the South Asian population in the Pacific Northwest and the resulting oral history project developed by the University of Washington Libraries. The South Asian Oral History Project started with a small grant in 2005 and blossomed into three distinct phases, each one documenting the life of immigrants coming to the Pacific Northwest during specific decades: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and the 1980s. These decades are important as they surround historical events each triggering a new wave of immigration from...