Kacie Lucchini Butcher, the Director of the Public History Project, recently published an article in The Oral History Review titled Challenging the Badger Brand: The Ethics of Conducting Oral History Interviews with College-Athletes. This article examines the ethical problems that arose during attempts to document the experiences of college athletes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Through Alexandra Mountain’s Sports, Recreation, and Society course, students learned how to conduct effective oral histories. These students then conducted interviews with past college athletes to learn more about the relationships between these athletes and their institutions. Lucchini Butcher and Mountain worked alongside the UW-Madison Archives Oral History Program so that the oral histories would be collected professionally, persevered, and available for future students and researchers.
Kacie Lucchini Butcher is the director of UW-Madison’s Public History Project, which is a multiyear effort to uncover and give voice to those who experienced and challenged bigotry and exclusion on campus and who, through their courage, resilience, and actions, have made the university a better place.