%0 Journal Article %T ‘The stories my father told me’: using interviews in teaching Polish history in North America %A Blackmore, Magdalena %J Studia Historica Gedanensia %V 2019 %R 10.4467/23916001HG.19.003.12344 %N Tom 10 (2019) %P 23-30 %@ 2081-3309 %D 2019 %U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/studia-historica-gedanensia/article/the-stories-my-father-told-me-using-interviews-in-teaching-polish-history-in-north-america %X The lack of a current cultural studies reader prompted the author to design an oral history course that helps to communicate to North American students the paradox of life under Communism in Poland. Oral history methods as both relatable and immediately applicable to students’ lives connect them with subjects that may otherwise come across as abstract and distant. This manuscript provides an overview of the course methodology and resources and presents students’ reflections on the benefits of learning through direct contact with witnesses. The author shows that the knowledge gained through the interviewing process has significant consequences for the students’ lives that extends far beyond the course, bridging generations and cultures.