Interviews

One of the primary research methods for the Carolina Population Center History Project was to collect oral histories from select persons who have contributed to CPC's development. The interviews are instrumental in understanding the Center's history. Interviews were conducted by Grace Camblos, a graduate student in Journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Content from some of the interviews has been selected for the audio- and video-clips included here. A segment transcript is also provided. A list of interviewees is provided below.

Udry talks about CPC's technical assistance activities throughout the world in the 1960s

Udry describes technical assistance activities in NC in the late 1960s and early 1970s

Udry describes Freymann as a Director

Udry explains how CPC was developed as an interdisciplinary Center

Turchi and Bilsborrow talk about Freymann's efforts to make CPC an interdisciplinary center

Udry speaks about the funding environment from the late 1960s to the mid 1970s

Mabry talks about the role of women at CPC in the early 1970s

Udry recalls talks with University administrators prior to being appointed Director

Mabry describes CPC when Udry was appointed Director

Rindfuss speaks about the transition of becoming a research center

Thomas describes the importance of having professional staff to support research

Udry states his vision for CPC

Mabry recalls the origins of the Fellows program

Udry describes the changes to the organizational structure that he made in the early 1980s

Popkin talks about the development of CPC's research program

Thomas speaks about Udry's influence on the Center's development

Udry talks about establishing the foundational elements of CPC

Tsui talks about the Center being administratively independent of an academic department at UNC

Turchi, Bilsborrow, and Suchindran recall the end of the Faculty Associates program and the start of the Fellows program

Udry talks about the changes to the training program in the late 1970s

Thomas describes changes in the training program between the 1970s and 1990s

Thomas explains how the CPC training program is broader than most population center training programs

Turchi and Suchindran recall how computer networking was first envisioned at CPC

Guilkey and Akin talk about multidisciplinary research projects

Rindfuss explains the benefits of having professional programmers on staff

Suchindran and Guilkey describe how the Statistical Core started

Thomas describes the contributions of the seminar series to CPC

Udry talks about leaving the Director position and Rindfuss taking the Directorship

Rindfuss speaks about the changes at CPC when he was Director

Rindfuss describes forming the Spatial Analysis Core

Popkin talks about the services provided by the Core Units

Rindfuss describes how the training program contributes to the Center

Udry describes the broadening of the definition of "population research"

Rindfuss talks about how large, longitudinal projects and smaller projects contribute to the environment at CPC

Rindfuss explains the interdisciplinary nature of the Center

Tsui describes the Biomedical Core Unit

Interviews Conducted

The following interviews were conducted for the History Project. In addition to these, numerous other interviews were conducted during the project's development.

Interviewee(s)	Interview Date(s)

J. Richard Udry	October 11, 2005, November 4, 2005 and December 5, 2005
Ronald R. Rindfuss	October 26, 2005 and November 30, 2005
Don Thomas	October 24, 2005 and November 16, 2005
Amy Tsui	December 10, 2005
Barry M. Popkin	December 16, 2005
Estelle Mabry	December 6, 2005
Sagar C. Jain	February 1, 2006
Joint interview: Judy Kovenock and Don Thomas	November 22, 2005
Joint interview: Betty E. Cogswell, Vaida D. Thompson, and J. Richard Udry	February 13, 2006
Joint interview: John S. Akin, David K. Guilkey, and Ronald R. Rindfuss	February 21, 2006
Joint interview: Richard E. Bilsborrow, Chirayath M. Suchindran, and Boone A. Turchi	February 24, 2006