About IOH

The Institute for Oral History creates oral history memoirs by preserving a sound recording and transcript of interviews with individuals who are eyewitnesses to history. Together with our interviewees, we document memories representing the diversity of American society and encompassing varied topics of social and historical significance. We encourage oral history scholarship through fellowships, graduate assistantships, and training workshops, and we share the outcomes of our oral history research through publications and public programming.

Located in the historic Carroll Library, the Institute for Oral History is an interdisciplinary research department within Baylor Libraries. Our oral history memoirs assist scholars whose research covers such specialized areas as religion and culture, civil rights, music and theater, historic preservation, rural life, and women's studies, as well as selected topics in economics, law, education, and politics. In addition, our oral history collection provides essential information for research on historical topics concerning Baylor University, Waco, and McLennan County, Texas.

Having provided leadership among organized oral historians since our inception, the Institute for Oral History

is the Executive Office for the Oral History Association (OHA), of which Stephen Sloan and Steven Sielaff serve as the Director and Assistant Directors (respectively), and the institutional home for the Texas Oral History Association of which Assistant Director Adrienne Cain Darough serves as Secretary-Treasurer ;
participates in H-Oralhist, the oral history online discussion listserv, of which Editor Michelle Holland serves as editor and Steven Sielaff is managing editor and technical advisor;
and is active in the international oral history community through the International Oral History Association, which has had representation from IOH faculty since 2014 and will include presentations from Stephen Sloan, Adrienne Cain Darough, and Michelle Holland during its 2025 meeting, and other global oral history conferences including the Oral History Society (UK), where Steven Sielaff presented at the 2016 annual conference in London, England, the 2024 International Emirates Oral History Conference where Adrienne Cain Darough presented, and the 2024 Finnish Oral History Symposium which also included a presentation by Adrienne Cain Darough.