Regional History Project Oral Histories

I am graduating from UCSC in the spring of 2002 with a degree in women's studies. Through the course of my studies, my interest in oral history has grown. Alan Sable was a professor at UCSC from 1970 to 1977; he was the first openly gay faculty on campus, and was denied tenure. Alan is now a therapist specializing in queer issues and lifestyles; he runs his practice out of his home in San Francisco. Alan and I first agreed to conduct the interview in my apartment in Santa Cruz. We had a great visit, and ended up having a long conversation where we got to know each other better. Yet, when I went to transcribe, I realized that due to technical problems more than half the interview was not properly recorded. We rescheduled a time to meet, and the second half of this interview was done weeks later in Alan's home in San Francisco. It was interesting to conduct the interview in Santa Cruz and in San Francisco; both locations are very important places in the narrative. The second opportunity to meet gave Alan and me a chance to think about the previous interview and discussion. This provided Alan with more time to re-visit what had happened in the past, and led to a more in'depth discussion about his feelings around his case and experience teaching at UCSC.--Michelle Espino