Oak Ridge Today

McDaniel completes Oak Ridge oral history project

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Keith McDaniel interviews Oak Ridge Historian Ray Smith at the Oak Ridge History Museum for the Center for Oak Ridge Oral History. (Submitted photo)

Filmmaker Keith McDaniel has completed a nine-year project to document the oral histories of about 400 current and former Oak Ridge residents, including those connected to the Manhattan Project during World War II.

The life stories were used to build a digital collection for the Oak Ridge Public Library’s Center for Oak Ridge Oral History, or COROH. McDaniel was part of the group that made plans for the COROH and, following the city’s receipt of an annual grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, took the contract for the documentary work.

“A lot of original Oak Ridgers were dying and getting older,” McDaniel said in a press release from Carson-Newman University. “We felt it was really important to collect their memories, to collect their stories.”

The one-on-one filmed interviews gave those connected to the Manhattan Project, and later to the city at large, the opportunity to share their life stories, the press release said.

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Education Foundation’s Lawler Scholarship helps student; applications accepted

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Tiffany Potok and Scotland architecture (Submitted photo)

 

Tiffany Potok met students from throughout the world as an honors student at University of Glasgow, one of Europe’s oldest universities. Along with Scottish students, she met Canadians and lived in a flat with students from Brazil, China, Cyprus, and Malaysia during the spring semester this year.

She studied the Scottish enlightenment and took neuroscience courses while there. And she brought home some life lessons as well.

“One of the main take-aways I have is this: We focus way too much on cultural differences and how that separates us,” Potok said. “We need to focus more on what makes us all human.”

She was the recipient of the 2016 Dr. Adrian R. Lawler Exchange Student Scholarship, which provided funds to assist with her international studies experience. [Read more…]