Description of research project
More than Our Work: Oral Histories of Nebraska’s Meatpacking Workers is a project to collect the oral histories of Latinx workers in Nebraska. The focus of our work is not the companies or plants, but the stories of Latinx workers’ agency resiliency and resolve as told by the physical objects they use in their everyday working lives. As such, this project straddles the disciplines of sociolinguistics and material culture studies.
The main outcome of this project will be a website in which we intend to preserve, digitize and analyze the social experience of the workers interviewed for this project. Our aim is to preserve these stories for future generations and to share them with a wider audience. In the initial stage of this project we will
interview workers in four Nebraska communities.
Coordinated by Dr. Isabel Velazquez, the compilation and analysis of these stories will be made based on audio recordings of guided conversations of approximately one hour, conducted in Spanish. These recordings will be transcribed from Spanish to English and the student interviewers will be asked to write a 1000-word essay in Spanish reflecting on their experience. A second and equally important outcome of
this project is to provide hands-on research experience for a group of UNL students who will be able to put into practice their bilingual skills by helping us to preserve and to study the social experience of their families and their communities.
Description of research and professional development opportunity
This opportunity is open to any UNL undergraduate that fulfils the requirements described below, regardless of major. In the first stage of this project we are looking to hire four undergraduate research assistants and one undergraduate photographer/videographer. The students will receive training and use their bilingual language skills to interview one of their parents in Spanish, and write a 1,000 word essay in Spanish and in English about their experience.
This project is designed to help students use their bilingual language skills and cultural fluency to gain hands-on professional experience in:
● How to conduct an interview in Spanish
● Research into the sociolinguistic experience of Latinx communities in the Midwest
● Transcription
● Translation
● Professional writing and editing in Spanish and in English
Student training and work will be supervised by Dr. Isabel Velázquez, principal investigator, and doctoral
student Olatz Sánchez-Txabarri, graduate research assistant for this project.
Student researcher responsibilities
● Training, two 1hr sessions, in person, on campus [2 hrs]
● Interview with one of their parents [2 hrs]
● Transportation and preparation of interview materials [2 hrs]
● Transcribe 1 hour interview [8 hrs]
● Translate interview from Spanish to English [8 hrs]
● Write 1,000 essay in English and Spanish [4 hrs]
● Receive feedback, incorporate revisions, edit & submit final versions [4 hrs]
Anticipated time commitment
Anticipated time commitment is estimated at about 30 hrs over the course of three months. Transcription, translation, writing and editing tasks may be completed remotely.
Requisites
● Bilingual UNL undergraduate student who grew up in a Spanish-speaking Latinx household in any
of the following communities: Crete, Lincoln, Grand Island, Lexington, Hastings, Fremont
● One parent is a first-generation Nebraskan, works at a meatpacking plant and agrees to be
interviewed by their child about their life-long working experience1
● Oral skills: Must be able to conduct 1hr interview in Spanish
● Bilingual literacy skills: 2
○ Must be able to transcribe audio recording of interview
○ Must be able to translate text of interview to English
○ Must be able to write a 1000-word essay in Spanish and in English.
● Can participate in two, in person, one-hour training sessions during regular semester
● Can travel home to conduct interview and to accompany student photographer twice during
regular semester
● Is responsible, proactive, creative, well organized and self-directed
● Is interested in the preservation and study of Spanish and of Latinx experience in NE
Requisites, interviewee
● The interviewee must be a Spanish-speaking, Latinx, first-generation Nebraskan who works in a meat processing plant in any community in the state
● Must be the parent of the student interviewer
● Must grant consent to make their image and story public on our project website
● Is available two participate in two one-hour sessions over the course of three months
● Is interested in the preservation and study of Spanish and of Latinx experience in NE
Student compensation
For their work, student researchers will receive a $600 stipend, to be paid in two installments. They will also be featured on our project website with a professional profile that showcases their bilingual and research skills.
Interviewee compensation
In appreciation for sharing their experiences with us, for allowing us to interview them, to photograph their personal objects and to share this with a wider audience on our project website, interviewees will receive a professional family portrait and a $100 gift card. Depending on the interviewee’s preference, this family portrait may be used in the project website or may remain private, with only one copy printed for the family.
Preservation of household and participant privacy and integrity
To the best of our ability, the members of this research team commit to safeguard the privacy and the
integrity of the participants in this project, and of the communities in which we conduct research. For the
purposes of this project, this means that we will be proactive in excluding any information that can place
interviewee, interviewer or any member of their household or immediate circle of interaction in moral or
physical danger.
This also means that each interviewee will have access to the edited audio recordings, images, transcriptions and translations of their interview before they are made public, and will have the option of asking us not to use an image or audio segment.
Students interested in this opportunity, please an email:
Dr. Isabel Velázquez, principal investigator
UNL Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
mvelazquez2@unl.edu/(402)472-9821
Olatz Sánchez-Txabarri, graduate research assistant
UNL Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
osanchez-txabarri@huskers.unl.edu