CMAS/Voces Oral History Collaborative Fellowship

 

This initiative is intended for any graduate student or faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin who wishes to fast-track their oral history work on a project about the Latina/o/x experience in the U.S. The interviews will follow protocols developed by the Voces Oral History Center. The Multiple Individual Interview Sessions (MIIS) methodology has been applied to various topics/populations to conduct up to 15 individual interviews over two days. See  Voces’ YouTube Channel  for examples such as "Voces of Documentary Film," & "Voces of Mariachi." The Fellow will lead a team of interviewers, helping to train them (along with experienced Voces staff), developing a questionnaire, and then conducting a minimum of three of the fifteen interviews. CMAS/Voces will provide the Fellow with interview documentation, raw transcripts of the interviews, and access to copies of the interviews to facilitate research. Interviews will be conducted either in Austin or elsewhere. CMAS/Voces staff will coordinate all aspects of the MIIS. 

The interviews will be housed at the world-renowned Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection on the UT-Austin campus, as part of the Center for Mexican American Studies (CMAS) oral history collection. 

In our fourth year of offering this competitive fellowship, we are restricting it to UT Austin faculty and students. It’s a wonderful research experience, where the Fellow works with other researchers and staff to boost research based heavily on oral history interviews. We bring professional videographers and photographers and photo scanners to handle the technical aspects your interview session; you and your fellow interviewers focus on the interview contents.  Past topics include: the Macondo Writers Workshop in San Antonio (2025); the Colegio Altamirano in Hebbronville, TX (2024) and San Rafael church in Concho, AZ (2023). 

Availability: Must be available to help operationalize the project over the spring/summer 2026. Must be available the first week of June 2026 to take a weeklong Voces Oral History Summer Institute in Austin. This is a substantial time investment for the Fellow, CMAS and the Voces Oral History Center. 

Eligibility:

• Any faculty or graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, as of spring 2026
• Must have at least 2 years of experience conducting oral history interviews
• Must have some record of publishing oral histories research
• Must be able to devote considerable time to the planning and execution of the project
• Must be a U.S. citizen 

Duties:

• Participate in regular planning meetings (monthly at first and then more frequently later in the process) in advance of the interviews 
• Coordinate a trip for CMAS/Voces staff to scout appropriate interview locations and meet local interviewees 
• Assist in Zoom training of interviewers 
• Develop a questionnaire, with assistance from the CMAS/Voces staff 
• Identify and invite up to 15 in-person interviewees 
• Recommend potential interviewers 
• Conduct three of these interviews 
• Must submit a journal manuscript to the US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal, an annual peer-reviewed publication within 9 months of the interviews and respond promptly to reviewer critiques (Journal submission guidelines)

Criteria:

• Topic must center on an aspect of the Latino experience in the U.S.
• Interviews may be conducted anywhere in the U.S.
• May center on topics that have been the focus of previous oral histories but should offer substantially new dimensions 
• Must advance research in a significant way

Submission Requirements:

• Your CV or resume
• A research proposal, no longer than 10 pages, outlining the following:
  • the reason for centering research on this population of Latinx in the U.S.
  • what, if any, other oral histories exist about this topic, and their findings
  • what, if any, work (publications, etc.) you have already conducted on this topic, and those findings
  • how a collaborative interview session – with 4 or more additional interviewers – will advance your research

Submit Your 2026 Fellowship Application

Deadline:

• Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, 11:59 p.m. CST
• Interviews must be conducted between May 11 and August 14, 2026

FAQs:

• Will the Fellow be paid?
  • An honoraria of $2,500 will be provided to the chosen applicant after successfully completing the fellowship, as part of their work in training interviewers, planning and coordinating various related work, conducting interviews and submitting journal article.​​​​​​​

Contact Information:

Michael Lopez, Sr. Administrative Associate, Center for Mexican American Studies, michael.lopez@austin.utexas.edu.