History students at the University of New Orleans and the University of Innsbruck, Austria have produced an oral history podcast series, marking a new development in their decades-long partnership. Students at the two universities collaborated to produce History Exchange.
History Exchange is conceived as a platform that will allow the two universities to collaborate on public history content in the future, said Marc Landry, UNO history professor and director of the Austrian Center for European Studies.
History Exchange is an idea that grew out of a collaboration between Landry and Innsbruck history professor Eva Pfanzelter, who was teaching on exchange at UNO in 2023.
Pfanzelter wanted to collaboratively teach a public history course at UNO and the University of Innsbruck, with the goal being the production of public history podcasts. The new course would be an example of the new Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) pedagogy. COIL helps students develop intercultural competency without having to leave campus by taking advantage of digital technologies like video conferencing, Landry said.
“Our idea was to create a joint platform between the universities called History Exchange, where students can continue to post podcasts and videos,” Landry said. “The first season was made as a tribute to (former UNO history professor) Guenter Bischof for his retirement, and we interviewed people like Nick Mueller and many other well-known historians.”
Bischof, who retired from UNO last year, spent nearly 35 years as a faculty member in the history department and was the longtime director of Center Austria.
Twelve UNO students joined with their counterparts in Innsbruck in the course, titled “UNO’s Special Topics in Public History: From Oral History to Podcasts.” Working in groups, the students researched each participants’ career, formulated questions and then recorded an interview aimed at eliciting their connection to Bischof, as well as their own impact in their field.
The students have created and posted seven podcasts, including an hour-long interview with Gordon H. “Nick” Mueller, former UNO history professor, founder of the UNO-Innsbruck International Summer School, and founding president and CEO of the National WWII Museum.
“New episodes continue to arrive monthly,” Landry said.
Currently, History Exchange is being hosted online at the University of Innsbruck, but Center Austria plans to make the podcasts available on its website as well, Landry said.
