Capturing Stories of the Generations

After ten years of generous support from the College of Humanities at Brigham Young University (BYU), The Cambodian Oral History Project (COHP) has found a new institutional home within the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, directed by Dr. Stanley Benfell.

Our In-Country Coordinator, Pheaktra Phouen, has been working closely with our peer leaders across Cambodia to collect powerful personal narratives from communities throughout the country. Since January 2025, thanks to his leadership and tireless efforts, we’ve received 400+ high quality and life-impacting interviews from Cambodia.

We’re thrilled to welcome Dr. Timothy Davis as the new Project Director for the Cambodian Oral History Project. He succeeds Dr. Dana Bourgerie, the project’s founder, who will continue to offer support and insight in his new role as Project Director Emeritus given his recent retirement. With Dr. Davis now heading the project, we look forward to the continued growth and impact of the project under his leadership!

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of April 17th, 1975, the beginning of the Khmer Rouge Genocide. Since visiting the killing fields at age 14, hearing stories during my missionary service, and now coming to the close of my time on this project, I am still struck by the horror that took place in that 4 year period. The experiences that the interviewees shared during my time as a project assistant have touched me in a profound way. I wept with them in their retellings and laughed with them as they shared funny stories about their childhood. These accounts are invaluable to their posterity and incredibly powerful for those who have the opportunity to hear or read their story on the COHP website. I feel privileged to have been able to learn from many interviewees firsthand.

We're excited to welcome new team members to the Cambodian Oral History Project! Our ever-expanding translation and indexing team now includes Hannah, Brittin, Devon and Ethan, who all recently shared some of their thoughts about the project with us.

From 2019 to 2021, I served as a volunteer missionary in Tacoma, Washington for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. My first missionary companion was Sister Pichmonyroth Nen from Phnom Penh. We talked about our families, and I recall her telling me that her mother had passed away in 2016.

When I walked in the door for my first day on the job at Sonoma Valley Hospital in 1988, the last thing on my mind was that, on that day, I would meet and start a life-enriching friendship with one of my co-workers.

As I have read recently posted interviews, I have been in awe of the resilience demonstrated in the stories. The narratives are often painful and harrowing but also inspiring. Many are epic stories of survival and of unimaginable heartbreak.

We are thrilled to announce the addition of a new life story to our project! This compelling account chronicles the life history of Sok Tann, a Cambodian refugee who settled in Utah after fleeing the Khmer Rouge. Sok Tann’s life history is a unique type of story for our project, as it was meticulously penned by his friend Randolph Taylor, rather than being done orally like many of our other interviews. Even so, Sok Tann’s interview offers a poignant glimpse into life in Cambodia during the upheaval that marked the Lon Nol and Khmer Rouge era, and recounts his harrowing escape from Cambodia to America in the aftermath of Pol Pot’s regime.