During the spring 2020 transition to remote learning necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Oral History: the Art of the Interview classes were forced to abandon the planned interview projects During the three week interruption before classes resumed online, Associate Professor Erin McCarthy and Archives staff created Capturing Quarantine, a digital oral history project designed to document the student experience during the global pandemic.
The collection documents a frequently overlooked voice, that of the undergraduate student, and will be a valuable source for future study by those interested in learning about daily life during the pandemic from the student perspective.
Students interviewed each other, created biographical and interview abstract statements, and authored reflection pieces on the experience of the abrupt mid-semester switch and overall thoughts about the process and the pandemic.
This project resumed during the Fall 2020 semester, with additional interviews collected, as the college offered both remote and hybrid courses. As with the spring 2020 interviews, these fall interviews continue to capture the undergraduate student voice narrating their experiences during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other oral history projects conducted by Dr. McCarthy's students in support of archival holdings:
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Interview with Quinton Walker
Nick Borelli
Quinton John Walker was born in Texas and when he was three-years old, his parents divorced, splitting the family into two separate households. In 2010 Quinton participated in his first theater production, Christmas at the O.K. This marked the beginning of his lifelong love of theater. He attended Canyon High School in New Braunfels, Texas, and during his Junior and Senior years he took dual credit courses through St. Edwards University. In 2015, Quinton came out to both of his parents as a gay man, something they both were very understanding and respectful of. He spent almost all of his time in school when he wasn’t working on academics, focusing on the school’s theater group, auditioning for and acting in a wide variety of shows before applying and being admitted to the Columbia College Chicago BFA Acting program. He moved to Chicago Illinois not long after graduating from high school, eager to start the rest of his life. The end of his freshman year at Columbia was interrupted by the Coronavirus pandemic, when he moved back to Texas and completed his classes online for the remaining six weeks of the semester.
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Interview with Rachel McCumber
Amelia Wilson
Rachel McCumber was born in Lubbock, Texas. She attended Frenship Highschool in Wolfforth, Texas and graduated in 2017. She chose Columbia College Chicago and moved to the city directly after high school, where she intended to major in Theater Design. After her first year, she switched her major to Creative Writing with a concentration in Nonfiction. In March 2020, Columbia College Chicago sent out a statement informing students that classes would be moved online due to the pandemic, Covid 19, rapidly spreading across the country. McCumber lived off campus near West Loop in the Greektown area of Chicago. When classes were cancelled, she remained in the city in her apartment with her roommate. McCumber was let go by her job shortly after the school shut down and has not been able to work during this time. McCumber expresses her thoughts and opinions on the matter of the pandemic and the nationwide shut down within the interview: Capturing Quarantine 2020.
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Interview With Ryan Pollock
Chan Woo Kim
Ryan Pollock was raised in Jefferson City, Missouri. He was educated at Helias Catholic High School from 2012 to 2016. After graduating, he attended McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul, Minnesota, from 2016 to 2017 and majored in both guitar performance and music composition. When the school closed down unexpectedly in 2017, Ryan continued his degree at Columbia College Chicago. Currently, Ryan is a senior and majoring in music composition. Ryan has worked as a guitar instructor since 2014. In 2018, Ryan worked with Big Ten Today Show, MissouriNet/Learfield Communications as an assistant director. Between 2018 to 2020, Ryan worked with 88.1 WCRX-FM as a public affairs coordinator. He even hosts a radio show, “The Ryan Pollock Show,” every Wednesday evening, where he interviews local musicians. Also, he is currently working with WGN Radio as a producer and videographer. Ryan also created his recording company, “Kind of Red Records.” In 2020, when the Coronavirus pandemic forced Columbia to lockdown and transfer to remote learning, Ryan could no longer continue to earn his education and host the radio in-person. He presently resides back in his apartment in the South Loop of Chicago to continue his education and work digitally.
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Interview with Samuele Bevilacqua
Alexandra Resendez
Samuele Bevilacqua was in Moncalieri, Italy, where he lived for most of his childhood. Bevilacqua describes his childhood in Italy as lonely, due to not being able to connect with the children he went to school with because he lived in the neighboring city. At the age of thirteen, Bevilacqua and his family moved to West Lafayette, Indiana. There he attended West Lafayette Junior/Senior High School and connected with a small circle of friends and Bevilacqua undertook more artistic endeavors. By high school, Bevilacqua discovered his love for film and film-making and discovered friends that shared this same love. Bevilacqua graduated high school in 2019 and during the fall of 2019, Bevilacqua moved to Chicago, Illinois to attend Columbia College Chicago, where he is currently majoring in Film with a focus on directing, with a projected graduation date of 2023.