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Texas After Violence Project
The Texas After Violence Project is an independent organization that documents through oral history interviews the widespread effects of capital punishment on Texans and Texas communities. The current public discussion about the Texas death penalty is concerned more about numbers than people, more about abstractions than real effects, and more about opinions than actual experiences.
Our primary goal is to listen carefully, respectfully, and without judgment to the subjective testimonies of those individuals who have been directly affected by the Texas death penalty. Another goal is to construct an archive of oral history interviews on the Texas death penalty at the Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin so that all the people of Texas may utilize and learn from these powerful testimonies.

Join Our Team
With and under the supervision of Texas After Violence Project staff, interns and volunteers may work on any of the following tasks depending on individual skills, desires, abilities, experience, level of commitment, and the needs of the project. Tasks include community outreach, researching sets of tragedies, identifying and contacting potential interview subjects, and assisting in preparing for interviews.
Depending on experience, level of commitment, length of time with the project, and only after having attended our five-session Listening After Violence training, student volunteers and interns may have the opportunity to record, transcribe, and conduct oral history interviews.
To participate, all student interns and volunteers, whether looking for academic credit or not, must attend all sessions of our next training, Listening After Violence, on September 21st, September 28th, October 5th, October 12th, and October 19th. Listening After Violence includes workshops and training about capital punishment in Texas and oral history interviewing.
If you are a student who hopes to work with us and receive academic credit, please check with your academic advisor as requirements vary widely from department to department and course to course.
The project also asks potential volunteers and interns to think carefully about what working on this topic would mean for you. Spending a lot of time thinking about the death penalty, and the violent crimes to which capital punishment responds, is not for everyone.
Our application for interns and volunteers can be found on our website (texasafterviolence.org) on the “Join Us” page.