Every year since 2016, OHMA has awarded the Jeffrey H. Brodsky Oral History Award to a student whose thesis makes an important contribution to knowledge and most exemplifies the rigor, creativity, and ethical integrity that OHMA teaches its students.
To more fully acknowledge the depth and breadth of excellence in OHMA theses, we are thrilled to announce that the Brodsky family has generously decided to expand the award and extend the funding for five additional years.. Starting this year we will be able to honor several students and their work.
For 2022, the selection committee, consisting of OHMA Director Amy Starecheski, INCITE Director and OHMA Co-Founder Peter Bearman, and 2021 Brodsky Award-winner Taylor Thompson, has chosen three theses to receive prizes. All theses submitted from October 2021-May 2022 were eligible for consideration.
Courtney Scott’s “‘I Am Your Nanny’/I am [not] your [m]other”
The winner of this year’s Brodsky Award is Courtney Scott (advisor: Nicki Pombier), for “‘I Am Your Nanny’/I am [not] your [m]other”. Through film, poetry, collage, photography, and edited audio, Scott explores the experiences of career nannies working in New York City. Scott’s work fulfills the promise of oral history - to amplify the complex and full voices of those who are not typically invited to speak in public. In five beautifully-edited audio episodes, Scott tells the stories of five nannies: their own childhoods, the women who raised them, their paths into nannying, saying goodbye to children they have cared for, and their relationships with their own biological children. Courtney Scott’s reflective writing around these creative pieces is compelling, thoughtful, and deeply grounded in the work of Black feminist scholars of care work, including Patricia Hill Collins and Dorothy Roberts. This is a project that took time to develop, in part because nannies are often precariously employed, with employers expecting discretion as part of the job. By shifting her focus from employer-employee relationships to love and motherwork, Scott found a way to honestly portray these experiences in their full complexity without putting narrators at risk. This work relied on trust, reciprocity, and affinity - Scott herself is a longtime nanny and professional careworker. Through time, love, and creativity, this moving and deeply rigorous thesis makes a significant contribution to public knowledge about care work and to oral history conversations about reciprocity and risk. In recognition of her accomplishments, Courtney Scott will receive a cash prize of $3000 and will present her work in the annual Brodsky Award Lecture at 6PM ET on March 23. Register here.
We are also awarding prizes to two additional students who created exceptional work:
Max Peterson’s “Real World History: Intergenerational Learning & Student Oral Histories of the Great Migration”
Max Peterson (advisors: Cosby Hunt, Kelly Navies, and Amy Starecheski) has been awarded the 2022 Brodsky Award for Excellence in Education. In “Real World History: Intergenerational Learning & Student Oral Histories of The Great Migration,” Max tells the story of the Real World History Project, in which Washington D.C. high school students interview D.C. elders. In this meta-oral history, we learn the story of how Real World History was created and evolved, providing important insights into the challenges and opportunities of teaching young people to be oral historians. Through analyzing the student oral histories archived at DigDC, Peterson shows that oral histories conducted by young people can make significant contributions to the historical record not only in terms of information about the past, but by documenting the intersubjective relationships of knowledge transfer between generations. The Real World History collection not only tells us new things about the Great Migration, it helps us understand how and why elders tell young people about the past. In recognition of his accomplishments, Max Peterson will receive a cash prize of $1500.
Sach Takayasu’s “Microphones & Brushes: An Exercise in Radical Engagement”
Sach Takayasu (advisors: Jessica Benjamin, Francine Spang-Willis, Tomoko Kubota, and Amy Starecheski) has been awarded the 2022 Brodsky Award for Creative Collaboration. In “Microphones & Brushes: An Exercise in Radical Engagement,” Takayasu has developed a new methodology for doing oral history. Struggling to fully understand her mother’s experiences as a teenager in Japan during World War II, Takayasu decided to try painting images from her mother’s stories, and asking her mother for feedback on them, to see if she was really able to immerse herself in her mother’s world. It took many drafts (and meticulous historical research) to arrive at paintings that Sach’s mother agreed were accurate. Some things could not be remembered or found in the archives, however, that in itself provided new insights. This innovative approach allows for a new way to explore the deeply embodied, multisensory, and dialogic practice of oral history. By rigorously and imaginatively documenting the experience of a teenager who lived through the Firebombing of Tokyo, Takayasu also contributes to our historical understanding of everyday life in Japan during WWII. In recognition of her accomplishments, Sach Takayasu will receive a cash prize of $1500.
Please join us in congratulating the winners!