Voices for the Future: The Obama Presidency Oral History

Photo of Obama standing and talking to two people with text "Obama Presidency Oral History"
Vis a Vis
Vis a Vis
Voices for the Future: The Obama Presidency Oral History
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As the United States embarks on a new election cycle, Vis A Vis is looking back on the Obama Presidency for insights on the challenges the country is now facing and how we got here. Last spring saw the launch of the Obama Presidency oral history, an archive of over 400 interviews with Obama cabinet members, policy makers, as well as artists, journalists, and ordinary citizens. To learn about how these interviews can help illuminate present challenges the U.S. is facing, Vis A Vis had a conversation with Columbia Professor Peter Bearman, who spearheaded this project.


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Professor Peter Bearman, who spearheaded this project, as Director of Columbia’s Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theories and Empirics (or INCITE), which is the home of the Obama Presidency Oral History. Professor Bearman is Cole Professor of Social Science at Columbia University. He co-designed the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and is a specialist in network analysis and historical sociology. He is the author of numerous books, including Doormen (University of Chicago Press, 2005) and, with Adam Reich, of Working for Respect: Community and Conflict at Walmart (Columbia University Press, 2018).


Credits

Host: Dr. Emmanuel Kattan

Editor and Producer: Monica Beatrice Hunter-Hart

Producer: Georgia O’Neil