Generational Collective Memory of the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing

• In Event: 576 - Section on Methodology Paper Session. Integrating Multiple Methodologies into Data Collection and Analysis

Abstract

Oklahoma has had its fair share of disasters, but perhaps the most infamous event is the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people and injured hundreds more. Examining the memorialization and collective memory of the attack 20 years later, how is the bombing constructed now? Further, how do those who did not have a direct, lived experience of the bombing or were in their adolescence at the time construct and remember the bombing? In order to understand how Oklahomans construct the bombing now and how, if at all, social constructions of the event vary between age cohorts, I utilize multiple methodologies: participant observation at the memorial site and commemorative events, content analysis of archival data and photographs taken at the memorial, as well as focus groups and semi-structured interviews with adult participants of various ages. In addition to my focus on generational differences in collective memory, I will provide a thorough analysis of how the bombing is constructed by Oklahomans twenty years later, thus presenting an understanding of the localized collective memory of the event. Data collection for this project begins January 2015 and will be completed by late spring. Data analysis and collection will be undertaken concurrently.

Author

• Jamie Vickery, University of Colorado