Grant Me Serenity: A Case Study on How Alcoholics Anonymous Influences Life-History Storytelling

November 4, 2019 Admin

My father’s ten-year AA chip. It is a round gold coin with the words, “To thine own self be true,” around the edge. Inside is a large triangle with one word on each side. The words are: unity, service, recovery. In the center of the chip is a large … — My father’s ten-year AA chip. It is a round gold coin with the words, “To thine own self be true,” around the edge. Inside is a large triangle with one word on each side. The words are: unity, service, recovery. In the center of the chip is a large X (Roman numeral 10).

Current OHMA student Lily Doron tries to understand how Alcoholics Anonymous, and 12-Step programs in general, train participants to reframe their life narratives in ways that promote healing, foster connection, and, hopefully, keep people sober. She brings these questions from OHMA’s workshop with Emma Courtland to an interview with her father, an alcoholic who is currently 12 years sober.

Impediments

October 24, 2019 Admin

Samantha Greenspan discusses the power of words, the value of listening, and issues of legibility and marginalized languages. This blog post was inspired by Dr. Nēpia Mahuika’s workshop “Oral History and Indigenous Peoples: Rethinking Oral History, Methods, Politics and Theories.”

We Speak the Same Language, We See through Different Tongues

October 20, 2019 Admin

Credit to Imgur: https://imgur.com/gallery/ocClUAn image from the film The Arrival of the written language of an alien group—one that exists based on symbols and functions with regard to past, present, and future simultaneously. It resembles a black… — *Credit to Imgur:* *https://imgur.com/gallery/ocClU*
An image from the film The Arrival of the written language of an alien group—one that exists based on symbols and functions with regard to past, present, and future simultaneously. It resembles a black inkblot that swirls into a circle.

Languages don’t just dictate who we talk to, they shape the way we think. Current Columbia College student Amanda Ong considers the how the languages we speak mold the way we learn to see and navigate the world, even when we are not speaking them.

The Journey of a Story

October 14, 2019 Admin

*Photograph of a woman standing in the middle of a group of trees. The sun is shining directly on her, making a glowing circle around her. Her face is turned up to look towards the light.*

Telling someone else’s story is a lot of responsibility. After collecting narratives, oral historians often have to decide how to make that story accessible to the public. In Dr. Tim Raphael’s recent workshop talk, he called this process “activating the archive.” In this post current OHMA student, Lauren Instenes, will discuss the complexities of this process by taking you on the journey of a story she previously attempted to “activate.”

The Most Unlikely Love Story

October 10, 2019 Admin

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Stories never stop being created, even in the most unlikely of places. Drawing on oral history testimonies from Auschwitz prisoners, filmmaker Michal Bukojemski, creator of The Auschwitz Chronicles, uncovers a most unlikely love story.

When the “Brick City” becomes the “New Jerusalem”

October 7, 2019 Admin

Photo Credits: City of NewarkImage Description: Cars whizz by in one of the most vibrant and active intersections in downtown Newark, NJ. — Photo Credits: City of Newark
Image Description: Cars whizz by in one of the most vibrant and active intersections in downtown Newark, NJ.

Newark, New Jersey isn’t just a place for looking back; it’s also for looking forward. Current Columbia College student Kyra Ann Dawkins wrestles with her expanding understanding of Newark beyond her family’s story and into the broken and beautiful narratives of the hyperdiverse city.

“[unintelligible]” : (thoughts on intralingual subtitling)

August 30, 2019 Admin

In this post, filmmaker and current OHMA student Storm Garner discusses the practice of subtitling accented or non-normative spoken English in documentary filmmaking and video presentations of oral history.

Lessons from the Belfast Project

May 24, 2019 Admin

Current OHMA student Anne Cardenas discusses Patrick Raden Keefe’s book, Say Nothing, and issues of security in oral history and journalism, inspired by Dr. Sam Redman’s April 4 workshop “Oral History and Archives: Voice, Storytelling, and Narrative in Historical Research.”

“Keeping Oral History Alive” —— Diversity in the Application of Oral History

May 16, 2019 Admin

In this post, based on Lorina Barker’s presentation, current Oral History MA student Lizzie Li discusses the diversity of oral history in real practice.

Indigenous scholar’s work informs new Columbia University + Wikipedia Initiatives

May 16, 2019 Admin

In this reflection on Dr. Lorina Barker’s recent lecture at OHMA, Wikipedia Fellow and Wikimedian-In-Residence Darold Cuba explores how scholars and academics can decolonize and indigenize public spaces through scholarship, exemplified by new wiki initiatives incubated at the Columbia University Libraries, WikiHMCi & WikiHBCU/DIO.

Times Square: It Shines Like Diamonds

May 16, 2019 Admin

Listen to the audio story below to hear how Times Square “shined like diamonds” to an immigrant seeing it for the first-time in the late 1940’s. OHMA student Christina Barba takes excerpts from oral histories to create an audio vignette about memory, culture and the joy of discovery in New York City.

Intersections Between a Clinical Encounter and an Oral History Interview: Skilled Listening and Narrative Understanding

May 13, 2019 Admin

Sculpture: My Father's Hearing Aid Cast in Gold by Neil Goldberg, 2012

During the OHMA Workshop , “Say It Forward: Art and Social Justice,” Lauren Taylor LCSW discussed her chapter, “Resilience: Elders in East Harlem,” reflecting on how her experience as a psychiatric social worker has both helped and hindered her practice as an oral historian. In this post, Caroline Offit explores the ways these roles interact: How do we think carefully about our narrator’s needs while being conscious of our own position and influence on an interview, as well as potentially evaluative or diagnostic language? How do we remain sensitive to the possible meanings that a narrator attaches to their words and how we personally interpret their words?

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

April 21, 2019 Admin

http://mentalfloss.com/article/78427/7-things-know-legally-changing-your-name

Lauren Taylor, Dao X. Tran, and Cliff Mayotte’s talk about Say It Forward: Art and Social Justice posed the question: How can we preserve and share humanity’s stories in order to build connections between people and create a more just and compassionate world?

“God Coming”

April 8, 2019 Admin

The Patan Kumari, or living goddess. Source: Ellen Coon

How many selves are we alloted? In this post, Rebecca Kiil explores the notion of our many selves within the context of the many gods present in the daily lives of the Newar people of Kathmandu, as introduced to us in Ellen Coon’s captivating workshop, “The Mountain with Two Wives: Landscape and Embodied Memory in Kathmandu.”

“I love it when they speak through my mouth”: Reflections on Oral History and Translation

April 4, 2019 Admin

OHMA alum Ellen Coon’s thesis on Newari women and divinity uses transcripts from the 1980s of Coon’s interviews with Newar midwife, Dil Maya Aji. Fascinated by the years Coon spent translating these interviews, OHMA student Caroline Cunfer contemplates how the subjective practices of translation and oral history intersect with and complement each other.

Banking Our Future

April 4, 2019 Admin

*A worker straddles two rows of seeds in the vault near the North Pole*

What does a giant underground vault near the North Pole have in common with an oral history collection? More than you think, Ellen Coon explains.

Pyakhan, Zar and Possessions

April 3, 2019 Admin

Figure Drawing: Possession by Nairy AbdElShafy

In their reaction to possessions Nepal and Egypt are very different. Their religious and cultural interpretations influence Pyakhan; the masked dance-drama performed in Nepal and the Zar exorcism ritual performed in Egypt. Current OHMA student Nairy AbdElShafy reflects on Ellen Coon’s talk on The Mountain with Two Wives: Landscape and Embodied Memory in Kathmandu on March 7th, and our role as oral historians in documenting experiences of possessions.

Sounds as Language, Language as Sounds

March 26, 2019 Admin

Image Description: In this photo, Nishani Frazier starts her presentation with music that is essential to the identities from her hometown. It captures one of the exciting moments from the workshop, in which Frazier enlightens her audience with capt… — Image Description: In this photo, Nishani Frazier starts her presentation with music that is essential to the identities from her hometown. It captures one of the exciting moments from the workshop, in which Frazier enlightens her audience with captivating music and sounds to make a point of her presentation.

“Listen to the world around you!” What do you hear? What sounds do you notice? Dr. Nishani Frazier’s presentation reminds us the importance of sounds in oral history. Music theory and philosophy teach us to value sounds that are linked with places, people, cultures, and languages.

Dear Green Place: Gentrification and Displacement in Glasgow’s West End

March 26, 2019 Admin

3,636 miles. That’s how far Glasgow, Scotland and Durham, North Carolina are apart from each other. Current OHMA student Rebecca McGilveray reflects on Nishani Frazier’s recent workshop and one of the things that unites these two places – the issues surrounding displacement.

Telling Histories: Aurality in the Classroom and in the Streets

March 25, 2019 Admin

Nishani Frazier, educator, black freedom scholar, and someone unafraid to turn oral history practices on their head, recently returned to Columbia (where she earned her PhD) to discuss "The Sounds of Blackness: Space and Sound Preservation as Oral History Advocacy."