In this post, current OHMA student Yutong Wang (2016) discusses her perspectives on being a historian and how politics influence historical revisionism. This article is the second in a two-part series exploring Dr. Leslie Robertson’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Devalued Subjectivities: Disciplines, Voices and Publics.”
Read MoreThe Politics of (Mis)recognition
Robertson shows a slide of a photograph of anthropologist Franz Boaz in which she points out how Boaz was “literally holding up a blanket to cover a white picket fence behind him.” By covering the fence, Boaz tried to recreate the world he imaged, a wilderness perhaps, before European contact. By contextualizing her voice and the voices of the people involved in the representation of Cook, Robertson’s approach offered guidance as to how understanding forms of social knowledge within politically and culturally sensitive contexts is essential to how we see ourselves in relation to one another.
In this post, OHMA student Elyse Blennerhassett (2016) discusses how Dr. Leslie Robertson’s community-generated and collaborative methodologies inform her own practice in working with communities who are politically marginalized and stigmatized in the criminal justice system. This article is the first in a two-part series exploring Dr. Robertson’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Devalued Subjectivities: Disciplines, Voices and Publics.”
Read MoreWhere Do We Go From Here? The Rise of Walmart and the Retail Experience in the United States
In this last post in our three-part series, OHMA student Sara Jacobs discusses Adam Reich’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “The Summer for Respect: Student Activists, Walmart Workers, and the Future of the American Labor Movement” and the echoes she heard in the stories told by her mother.
Read MoreSummer for Respect: How Does Difference Shape the Dialogue?
In this post, current OHMA student Xiaoyan Li (2016) reflects on how the difference between elite students and Walmart workers shapes the dialogue between them, and how the organizers observe this and put it into words. This article is the second in a three-part series exploring Adam Reich’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “The Summer for Respect: Student Activists, Walmart Workers, and the Future of the American Labor Movement.”
Read MoreJumping The Ropes: Tackling Walmart Through Oral History
In this post, OHMA student Eylem Delikanli (2015) explores the potential of oral history to provide labor organizers with powerful tools for mobilizing. This article is the first in a three-part series exploring Adam Reich’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “The Summer for Respect: Student Activists, Walmart Workers, and the Future of the American Labor Movement.”
Read MoreThinking Beyond Our Discipline: The Benefits Of Expanding Our Ideas.
In this post, Heather Michael shares insight from an OHMA Workshop Series presentation by Dr. Mindy Fullilove on her work on situation analysis. Heather explores how Dr. Fullilove’s work illustrates what it means to research through interdisciplinary approaches and raises questions for future researchers to consider.
Read MoreWith Blood, Sweat, and Tears: The Making of Peoplehood and Home
In this post, current OHMA students Robin Miniter (2016) and Shira Hudson (2016) reflect on the history of urban squatters on the Lower East Side after Amy Starecheski’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture. Through interviews with members of the current OHMA cohort, they explore what it takes to make a space feel like home.
Read MoreWhy Are These Stories Worth Telling?: Reflections on ‘Below the Grid’ (Part III)
Oral historian Ron Grele (Director Emeritus, Oral History Research Office) engaging in discussion at Jack Tchen's recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture.
In this post, current OMHA student Yutong Wang (2016) explores how oral histories can be both meaningful and impactful to public audiences.
This article is the final piece in a three-part series exploring Jack Kuo Wei Tchen’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Below the Grid.”
Read MoreCreating Dynamic Dialogue with Our Past and Present: Reflections on ‘Below the Grid’ (Part II)
In this post, current OHMA student Xiaoyan Li (2016) reflects on how the dynamic dialogic process enlightens the shadows of our past and present.
This article is the second in a three-part series exploring Jack Kuo Wei Tchen’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Below the Grid.”
Read MoreThe Dialogic Space & Feeling the Human Story: Reflections on 'Below the Grid' (Part I)
Image courtesy of pixabay.com
In this post, Chinonye Alma Otuonye explores the dialogic space as a mechanism towards a human understanding of the self and history. She reflects on the ways John Kuo Wei Tchen—NYU professor, historian, and curator—decolonizes both space and history within and through his work.
This article is the first in a three-part series exploring Tchen’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Below the Grid.”
Read MoreListen to Understand, Brooklyn Then & Now: Exploring 'Voices of Crown Heights' (Part III)
Image courtesy of Shutterstock.
This article is the third and final in a three-part series examining the Brooklyn Historical Society’s ongoing oral history project “Voices of Crown Heights.” In this post, current OHMA student Meave Sheehan (2016) looks at what it means to “live” a public policy and how oral history can be used to uncover both noticeable and more subtle changes over time.
Read MoreOral History in the 'Post-Fact' Era: Exploring ‘Voices of Crown Heights’ (Part II)
This article is the second in a three-part series examining the Brooklyn Historical Society’s ongoing oral history project “Voices of Crown Heights.” In this piece, current OHMA student Rachel Unkovic (2016) focuses on how oral history can illuminate (rather than obfuscate) historical narrative even in times of confusion and conflicting ideas.
Read MoreOral History as Excavation: Exploring ‘Voices of Crown Heights’ (Part I)
Source: 6sqft.com
This article is the first in a three-part series examining the Brooklyn Historical Society’s ongoing oral history project “Voices of Crown Heights.” In this post, current OHMA student Dina Asfaha (2016) writes that Zaheer Ali's project is a prime example of the need for oral history in understanding society. She proposes that Ali does an exemplary job of situating people's narratives in their respective historical contexts and putting those narratives in conversation with one another in order to deduce conclusions about how gentrification in Crown Heights can be understood today.
Read MoreZoetrope City: Moment, Motion, and Memory
Earlier this fall, OHMA students Emma Courtland (2016) and Robin Miniter (2016) met in a third story apartment in Hamilton Heights to “narrate their photos.” Using a modification of the methods used by artist and urbanist Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani to put walking tours, photography, and memory in conversation about the experience of gentrification in Prospect Heights, Courtland and Miniter planned to use photography and oral history to explore their changing relationships to the city. They then visited the places depicted in their photos. This is the story of one of those photos.
Read MoreFor The Community by the Community: The NYPL Community Oral History Project
Image courtesy of the Bronx Times.
In this post, current OHMA student Steve Fuchs (2016) explores the New York Public Library’s Community Oral History Project—directed by Alex Kelly—and the Library’s expanding role in the community.
Read MoreField Notes: The Narrative Outside of Oral History
Image by Emma Courtland
Earlier this fall, DW Gibson, author of Not Working and The Edge Becomes the Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century, gave an OHMA Workshop Series lecture in on how he used oral history to reflect the changes in peoples’ lives through gentrification. This article—written by current OHMA student Liu Ting (2016)—focuses on how Gibson presents oral histories in his book and how his own narrative interplays with the interviews.
Read MoreOde to the Transcriber, Unsung Hero of Oral History
In this post, current OHMA BA/MA student Rozanne Gooding Silverwood (2015) reflects on the art of transcription and offers her perspective on how the NYPL Community Oral History Project might increase the enlistment of volunteer transcribers by educating prospective participants about the literary history and aesthetic value of rendering the spoken word to text.
Read MoreWhat is Oral History Anyway? Field Notes from a Workshop with DW Gibson
Not my actual train. But it could be.
In this post, Robin Weinberg (2016) shares her thoughts about oral history after a presentation by DW Gibson, author of The Edge Becomes the Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century, in OHMA’s 2016-2017 Oral History Workshop Series.
Read MoreField Notes: How Much Can We Trust The Dialogic Exchange Between Historian and Narrator?
Recently, author DW Gibson stopped by OHMA to discuss his book, The Edge Becomes The Center: An Oral History of Gentrification in the Twenty-First Century, in which he documents the lives and stories of Brooklynites and others who have an opinion on the increased development in Brooklyn, New York. In this post, Fanny Garcia (2016) reflects on his presentation.
Read MoreTension & Strength, Politics & Art: Christopher Allen’s Story of Documentary in Southside, Williamsburg
Christopher Allen speaking at the OHMA Workshop Series in September 2016. Photo credits: Emma Courtland (2016).
In this post, Heather Michael, shares insight from a presentation by Christopher Allen on the intersection between his beliefs about art and politics vis-à-vis the creation of Living Los Sures, a multifaceted, six-year documentary project about the community of Southside, Williamsburg.
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