Ep 2. From Exhibit To Empowerment: A Journey Through City Oral History!

In this episode, we briefly touch on the backgrounds of Christopher Livingston, Director at the Historical Research Center (HCR) at California State University Bakersfield, and Donato Cruz, Research Analyst at the HRC and how their education and lived experiences have served as a foundation for the remarkable contributions to The exhibit, America's New Cities: Housing and 'Redlining' in California's Central Valley. Livingston openly discusses his efforts in social justice and emphasizes the potential for rectifying social injustices through oral history practice and research. He highlights how communities of color have historically been marginalized or overlooked in traditional archives, leading to significant gaps in the historical record. Livingston underscores the importance of addressing these archival silences to ensure that the full histories of these communities are acknowledged and documented. Influenced by historian Paige Glotzer, a researcher focusing on 19th and 20th-century housing segregation, Cruz identifies himself as an Urban Historian. He explores the evolution of cities over time and the role of racial segregation within urban development. Collaborating with Livingston on archival projects, Cruz developed his Master's thesis titled "America’s Newest City”: 1950s Bakersfield and the Making of the Modern Suburban Segregated Landscape". Together, they pursue their shared goal of researching their community.