In this post, OHMA alumna Cindy Choung (2009), recipient of our first OHMA Alumni Conference Travel Grant, writes on dialogue and difference among oral history practitioners at the 2016 Oral History Association Meeting. She offers thoughts on creating space for connection and reflection between oral historians across generations.
Read MoreWe are proud to announce that our 2016-2017 OHMA Research Grants have been awarded to current students Robin Miniter (2016) and Fanny Julissa García (2016), who will be exploring the experiences of women who have navigated either American wilderness and patriarchy, or immigration detention and identity formation. Funding and support has been made possible through the GSAS Thesis Research Matching Award program.
Read MoreThis 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 MoreThis 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 MoreEarlier 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 MoreIn 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 MoreOHMA is excited to announce that Amy Starecheski’s book, Ours to Lose: When Squatters Became Homeowners in New York City (University of Chicago Press, 2016), has officially been published! It is for sale online and is starting to appear in bookstores, from Red Emma's in Baltimore to Book Culture on Broadway in New York City. Congratulations, Amy! We look forward to hosting you for an OHMA Workshop lecture on Thursday, January 19, 2017.
Read MoreEarlier 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 MoreApplications are now open for a new two-week long intensive seminar exploring oral history, memory, visuality, and the body. The course is co-sponsored by the European Research Council Project Bodies Across Borders: Oral and Visual Memory in Europe and Beyond (BABE) and the Columbia University Oral History Master of Arts Program (OHMA), and hosted by the Department of History and Civilization at the European University Institute, Florence.
Read MoreIn 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 MoreRecently, 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 MoreIn 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.
Read MoreIn this article, Fanny Garcia (2016) reflects on her path to oral history through her family’s path to naturalization, her transformation of xenophobia through activism, and the recent Central American refugee crisis that spurred her mother to share her story.
Read MoreIn this post about Christopher Allen's recent lecture in our 2016-2017 Oral History Workshop Series, current OHMA student Christina Pae (2015) reflects on the importance of collaboration in oral history projects, particularly when an outsider aims to conduct a project within an insular community.
Read MoreThe Jeffrey H. Brodsky Oral History Award is given to one student annually whose thesis makes an important contribution to knowledge and most exemplifies the rigor, creativity, and ethical integrity we teach our students.
We are pleased to recognize Benji de la Piedra’s (2014) contributions to advancing the field of oral history and look forward to presenting the award in person at his thesis lecture next month. Please join us for the celebratory event on Tuesday, October 18 at 6:30 p.m. in 509 Knox Hall, co-sponsored by Columbia's Center for American Studies and Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability, where Benji is a fellow this fall.
Read MoreTwo years after the formation of the Columbia Oral History Alumni Association (COHAA) Founding President and OHMA Project Coordinator Erica Fugger (2012) reminiscences on the group's origin story—spanning Columbia Center for Oral History Research's move to INCITE to the organic spaces for inter-cohort dialogue that arose amidst our historic interview archives in Butler Library.
Erica discusses the Alumni Association's early organizing efforts, participation in campus demonstrations, and commitment to building networks of support for emerging oral historians.
Read MoreOHMA is excited to welcome three new graduate assistants for the 2016-2017 academic year!
Dina Asfaha joins us as Program Assistant, offering research support to faculty, helping organize our public events, and contributing to OHMA's special projects.
Fanny Garcia is our Outreach Assistant this year, expanding the scope of our public engagement, increasing the visibility of our program, and deepening our social media presence.
Emma Courtland will be our Video Production Assistant, recording our Oral History Workshop Series lectures, editing our YouTube broadcasts and podcasts, and conducting video interviews with our program affiliates.
Read MoreNyssa Chow (2015) is an OHMA student and Teaching Fellow in our Method, Theory, and Interpretation course this fall through Columbia’s Center for Teaching and Learning. Her work with OHMA Co-Director Mary Marshall Clark to transform oral history by teaching visual literacy recently received Columbia’s Faculty Provost Award. In this post, Nyssa reflects on ethnopoetric transcription through Della Pollock and Hudson Vaughan’s talk in our Oral History Workshop Series this spring and discusses her experiences in visually expressing her narrators’ orality in print.
Read MoreHaitao Fan is a member of our 2011 cohort. Her recently published book, Life Begins at Thirty (China Machine Press, 2016), profiles her time studying in OHMA and became an instant bestseller in Mainland China. In this post, Haitao reflects on her writing process and commitment to building the oral history movement in China.
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