Job announcements: Congratulations OHMA alumna Erica Fugger!

OHMA is excited to share the successes of its graduates and we will be posting announcements about all of the exciting things our alums are up to in the coming days and weeks!  

Erica Fugger [OHMA 2014] was recently hired for the full-time position of Administrative Assistant at the Columbia Center for Oral History (CCOH). As a work-study editorial assistant at CCOH during the 2012-2013 academic year, Erica gained experience in the archives by aiding researchers utilizing the collections, audit editing transcripts, and serving as a staff member of the 2013 Oral History Summer Institute. In her new role, Erica directs the work of the graduate assistants, offers consultations to individuals and organizations on implementing oral history projects, and develops projects to expand access to the archive. Erica is currently completing her thesis project, which will include an audio documentary based on narratives of practitioners in the tradition of Vietnamese Zen Master Thích Nhất Hạnh and a guide to oral history interviewing through Buddhist practice.

Congratulations to OHMA Graduate, Ellen Brooks!

Ellen Brooks [OHMA graduate 2013] was recently hired as the Oral History Archivist and Curator at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, WI. Aside from coursework and fieldwork experiences, her position as Education Intern at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum this past summer helped prepare her for the role of integrating oral history into public programming. She also has considerable experience archiving and analyzing oral history through her work as research assistant to Professor Amy Starecheski, whose work utilizes oral history to explore the experiences of squatters on the Lower East Side. In her role at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Ellen will be splitting her time between organizing the extensive current collection of oral histories, collecting additional interviews, training volunteers and designing exhibits and programming that feature the Museum’s oral history collection. Ellen’s primary objective at the Veterans Museum will be to promote oral history as an essential facet of museum education and public history.

 

Registration Now Open! Free Public Oral History Workshops by OHMA Alums and Students

On Thursday, May 2 we will be kicking off our 5th Anniversary celebration with three free, public, interactive lunchtime oral history workshops taught by OHMA alums and students: Oral History and Psychotherapy, Designing Oral History Projects, and Stories Beyond Digital Tools. Register now to reserve your spot! Lunch will be provided, and all workshops will take place in Buell Hall from 12:15-1:45.

Workshop #1: Convergences and Divergences of Oral History and Psychotherapy

​

taylor workshop photo.jpg

Lauren Taylor

This workshop will examine the convergences and divergences of oral history and psychotherapy. Public and private themes will be explored in a sociocultural context, with a focus on trauma interviewing. Participants will learn how narrative may be developed to therapeutic effect in a range of clinical and non-clinical settings. The workshop will include participant role plays and analysis of audio and video interviews.

Part one, Contrasts and Similarities, will compare the approaches and interviewing techniques of both the oral historian and the psychotherapist, will an emphasis on understanding intersubjectivity and appropriate use of self-disclosure. Part two, Understanding Trauma, will provide an understanding of the bio-psycho-social effects of trauma, and the development of skills for coping with vicarious traumatization during the interview process. Register to reserve your spot!

Lauren Taylor, M.A., M.S., L.C.S.W., oral historian and psychiatric social worker, is an adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work. As an oral historian, Ms. Taylor has conducted dozens of life history interviews with older adults, both in the United States and abroad, and is studying the subjective experience of aging through the medium of narrative in a cross-cultural context. Ms. Taylor has lectured and published on the therapeutic use of oral history and life review for an aging population, and on the integration of oral history and social work education, both in the US, in France, and in Canada.

Workshop #2: Designing Projects: What is the message, why is it important and who got it?

Marie Scatena

scatena workhop image.jpg

This workshop goes through the steps of planning an oral history project with attention to backward design. We’ll explore how the original intention of the collecting effort is reflected in tangible and intangible outcomes by: 

Envisioning connections between potential audiences or publics and narrators to create a project mission statement or guiding question

Identifying points in the process where ‘translation’, or decisions about refashioning research into what is often called interpretation, takes place

Work-shopping questions and scenarios to achieve different outcomes

Brainstorming evaluations which might be built into the process

Register to reserve your spot!​

Marie Scatena experienced OHMA as a student in the first graduating class, and from 2010 to 2012 she taught OHMA’s Oral History Workshop and Fieldwork, Production, Documentation and Archiving courses.   Marie conducted her thesis research at the MoMA, and drew on her background in museum education to help OHMA students realize collaborative projects for public presentation and creative theses. In recent years Marie contributed to oral history projects such as Columbia Teacher’s College ART CART Project with fellows interviewing aging visual artists for an exhibition and website and The National Public Housing Museum’s collection efforts with youth.  Today Marie is an independent researcher, developer and consultant based in Chicago. She works with institutions, organizations and communities to collect and interpret stories.

Workshop #3: Stories Beyond Digital Tools

Sewon Christina Chung

chung workshop image.jpg

Explore the world of interactive web technology, and gain hands-on experience utilizing new storytelling platforms and social media outlets for oral history.

New digital tools can help us craft compelling audiovisual and interactive stories. This workshop is designed to provide exposure to new trends in digital storytelling, all the while investigating the potential traps of digital tools. We will work together to develop thoughtful approaches to using new technologies, taking the stories beyond the tools. Chung will highlight Oral History-related websites with interactive functions, beginning a conversation about the potentials of new media tools and will go over main tools and web platforms, giving an explanation of its functionality and limitations. Participants should bring their laptops. At the close of the workshop, the group will spend 30 minutes building a web story on Zeega. We will close with a discussion about more thoughtful ways to approach new technologies and avoid the traps of believing that tools are more than just tools. Register to reserve your spot!

Sewon Christina Chung received her B.A. in Sociology and Literary & Cultural Studies from the College of William and Mary in 2009. During her studies, she produced a documentary film about the U.S.‐Mexico border to facilitate discussion concerning race, identity, and community in Williamsburg, Virginia. After graduation, Sewon completed a multimedia blog series for MIT's CoLab Radio in Kunming, China. Her work focused on the daily experience of urban development in one of China's quickly changing border region. At OHMA, she is combining her interests in visible and invisible borders as well as new media as a medium and method for oral history in research about Central Park North.

​