Nazareth University students preserve the stories and tradition of Rochester's Italian-American community, Oct. 6

Students are conducting oral history interviews at Rochester Public Market

Rochester, NY (10/04/2024) — The stories of many Italian-American families who immigrated to make their home in Rochester are being preserved thanks to Nazareth University students who are documenting the stories and traditions as part of an ongoing Oral History Project.

The Nazareth students are heading to the Rochester Public Market on Sunday,Oct. 6- Italian Heritage Day at the market - where a group of Nazareth Italian and history majors will conduct in-person history interviews in Italian or English as part of their ongoing Oral History Project. The goal of the project is to document and preserve traditions handed down through the generations, as well as digitize historical files for ease of access for both the community and the university.

For the past two years, Nazareth's Center for Public History (led by Professor Timothy Kneeland, Ph.D.) and the Frank DiMino Casa Italiana (led by Director Joelle Carota, Ph.D.) have partnered to interview residents of Italian descent to collect and preserve their stories and family histories and thereby create a more accurate history of the Rochester metropolitan area. The students are also interested in capturing language retention patterns. The phenomenon of language loss - or attrition - in immigrant communities usually occurs by the third or fourth generation.

To date, Nazareth students have interviewed, recorded, transcribed, and archived close to 100 oral interviews with Rochester Italian-Americans.

WHEN: Sunday, Oct. 6, noon-2 p.m.

WHERE: Rochester Public Market, 280 North Union St., Shed 2

MEDIA: Please email Julie Long at jlong2@naz.edu if you may attend.

On Sunday, you can call Dr. Joelle Carota's cell at 585-267-0052 if you need help finding them at the Public Market.

Nazareth University

Nazareth University students preserve the stories and tradition of Rochester's Italian-American community, Oct. 6

Students are conducting oral history interviews at Rochester Public Market

Nazareth University

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