In addition to offering course work in interviewing techniques, technical processing methodology, and community fieldwork, the program administers an assortment of ethnic, political, and other regional projects. Oral history is an invaluable way of collecting sociocultural data or compiling a permanent archival record for interpretation by researchers. With respect to Asian American communities, which until recently have generally been underdocumented or documented in a narrow, stereotypical fashion, oral history can serve to fill factual gaps in the existing historical story or open up the gaps between established facts to support a new interpretation of them. Accordingly, the two-fold purpose of this class is to become skilled at doing oral history interviewing, and to employ the skills acquired by adding to the extant knowledge about a selected Asian American community's history and culture. The emphasis in this course is on Asian American communities in Southern California, particularly Orange County.
Orange County is also economically powerful.