Evan McCormick and Terrell Frazier present Power In the Space Between: Oral Histories of State/Movement Contact.
This panel will explore the practice of interviewing actors within the state and outside of it about moments of contact that arise from both specific historical moments and standard bureaucratic processes. Drawing on their experiences in the Obama Presidency Oral History, Terrell and Evan will discuss the Obama Administration's interest in incorporating outside actors into its domestic and foreign policymaking processes, and the act of designing interviews that probe both sides of these encounters. Opening to a broader discussion with the Fellows, Terrell and Evan hope to foster fresh ways of thinking about how oral history can be responsive to the ways that power flows in such inside/outside engagement.
About Evan McCormick
Evan D. McCormick is a historian of the United States and the World. He joined Incite in 2019 as an associate research scholar on the Obama Presidency Oral History project, for which he focuses on the Obama administration’s foreign policies and the Obama presidency in a global context. He also leads the Obama Scholars Global Leadership Study , a ten-year prospective oral history project based on interviews with the Obama Foundation Scholars at Columbia University.
Evan’s academic work has focused on U.S. foreign policy and contested ideas of security, democracy, and rights in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. His scholarly work has appeared in Diplomatic History and the Journal of Cold War Studies, and his commentary on foreign policy and presidential history has appeared in The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica, War on the Rocks, and Clarín (Buenos Aires). Evan received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Virginia (2015) and an M.A. in International Relations from Yale University (2007). He has held postdoctoral fellowships from the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University and the Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., Evan served as a policy fellow in the Department of Homeland Security (2007-2009).
A musician and record collector, Evan spends too much time thinking about the relationship between music and its historical contexts. He hosts ‘Music In Time’ on WGXC in the Hudson River Valley, a monthly show that explores the social and political frames in which songs and albums emerge, are listened to, and reflected on over the years.
About Terrell Frazier
Terrell Frazier was lead interviewer on the Obama Presidency Oral History project from August 2019 to August 2022. He conducted interviews with 69 people on areas ranging from justice and regulatory policy to civic participation.
His research interests include social movements, social networks, race and ethnicity, sexualities, and health determinants. Frazier has been at the forefront of using oral history as a tool for community engagement and social change, previously serving as the Director of Education and Outreach at Columbia University’s Center for Oral History. He is an editor of Documenting and Interpreting Conflict through Oral History. Frazier has also led communications and research efforts at GLAAD, Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, and Freedom to Marry.
He is completing his Ph.D. in sociology at Columbia University, writing his dissertation on the network dynamics and strategic practices that structure the relationship between executive power and social movements—a critical nexus offering a new lens through which to examine American political development and the contemporary policymaking process.
About the Oral History Summer Institute
Bi-annually, the Columbia Center for Oral History Research sponsors a Summer Institute in New York City, which brings together oral historians, scholars, activists, and others for two weeks of advanced conversation in the theory and practice of oral history. Participants work with the Center’s world-class staff, network with oral historians from around the world and go to exhibits in New York City. Each year we focus on a different theme that reflects our work from throughout the past year. Our 2023 Institute, Oral History and Social Change, invites participants to explore how the stories we tell invite social and political change.
