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.
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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.
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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 experience
● Oral skills: Must be able to conduct 1hr interview in Spanish
● Bilingual literacy skills:
○ 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
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STUDENTS INTERESTED IN THIS OPPORTUNITY OR WHO WANT MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE 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