Community and Oral History Center

Department founder, Dr. Vincent "Jake" Power,s developed and hosted  an Ethnic Seminar in 1978.  The purpose was to learn about and appreciate the histories of Worcester's various ethnic/racial groups by moving the seminar around  the city.  While WSU was the homebase, the seminar moved around the city, heard from the people of different ethnic communities, and worked with  WSU scholars  and invited experts from Clark University.  

The sessions, which are available below, were recorded on 1/4 inch reel-to-reel takes and digitized by the Department of Urban Studies in summer 2019.   

(Open to the public in September 2019)

The department offered a First Year Seminar on Basketball and its Role in America's Urban Places in 2011.  As part of the class, students interviewed figures associated with basketball in Worcester.  Among those interviewed were Bob Cousy and Tommy Heinsohn, college players at Holy Cross in the mid-20th century, members of Clark University's early  women's basketball teams, WSU's-own Jim McSherry, and youth basketball league developers.  Below are some of those interviews.