ABSTRACT

This article focuses on an award-winning oral history project with American Muslims in a small Midwestern city. It addresses the challenge and opportunity of oral history at a time of Islamophobic rhetoric and threats to Muslims’ status as Americans. The article first examines critiques of the premise that Muslims must be “humanized.” In turn, it draws on the philosopher Jill Stauffer’s work, Ethical Loneliness: The Injustice of Not Being Heard, to argue that oral history offers a form of “reparative” hearing. In this way, oral history can aid in transforming a sense of “ethical loneliness” in those who are treated unjustly and dehumanized, and whose experience is not heard. The article explores these themes through the Muslims in Muncie oral history and documentary film project carried out by eleven students at Ball State University in 2018. The article argues that a commitment to trust, sustained conversational relationships, and careful framing of questions fostered a transformative experience for both narrators and interviewers in response to a problematic humanizing agenda. The project’s contribution to ethical repair continues, moreover, through a publicly accessible digital archive that adds to the handful of oral histories with American Muslims. The twenty-two interviews and hour-long film also enrich Middletown Studies, a field dating to the 1920s research of Robert and Helen Lynd on Muncie, Indiana, as a “representative” American city.

摘要

本文重点介绍在中西部一个小城市与美国穆斯林合作的一个屡获殊荣的口述历史项目。它解决了在仇视伊斯兰教的言论和穆斯林作为美国人的地位受到威胁的时候口述历史的挑战和机遇。这篇文章首先考察了对穆斯林必须“人性化”这一前提的批评。反过来，它借鉴了哲学家吉尔·斯托弗（Jill Stauffer）的著作《道德孤独：不被倾听的不公正》，辩称口述历史提供了一种“修复性”听力形式。通过这种方式，口述历史可以帮助那些受到不公正待遇和非人道待遇以及没有听到他们的经历的人转变一种“道德孤独感”。文章通过 2018 年鲍尔州立大学的 11 名学生开展的 Muncie 口述历史中的穆斯林和纪录片项目探讨了这些主题。文章认为，对信任的承诺、持续的对话关系和仔细的问题框架促进了变革性的体验对于叙述者和采访者，以应对有问题的人性化议程。此外，该项目通过一个可公开访问的数字档案继续为道德修复做出贡献，该档案增加了美国穆斯林的少数口述历史。