CENTER FOR ORAL AND PUBLIC HISTORY

Our Mission: The California State University. Fullerton (CSUF), Center for Oral and Public History (COPH), in the Department of History, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) is primarily a teaching, training, research, publication, and public service operation.  Its mission is two-fold.  With respect to oral history, it is to develop, archive, and make available to the public significant oral documentation pertaining to the personal, regional, ethnic, political, and international histories that link Southern California to a globalized world. 

As regards to public history, it is to connect the academy with broader audiences by promoting historical skills and services related to editing, archives and record management, family/community studies, historic preservation, documentary film production, policy analysis, heritage tourism, and high-technology media in order to enrich historical understanding in public memory.

The 4,000 plus tape-recorded interviews and related documents, photographs, and research/reference material in the COPH archives and reading room are open to the campus community and the public. COPH connects the university with broader audiences and enriches historical understanding in public memory by promoting historical skills and services.