In this post, Rachel Unkovic, member of the 2016 cohort, talks about why oral historians have a unique role to play in amplifying and signal boosting marginalized voices to enable "history" and communal memory to be appropriately critiqued.
Read MoreThe Utopia of Europe
"lampedusa" (CC BY 2.0) by noborder network.
Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability fellow Lura Limani reflects on what stories of migrants, as collected by Professor Luisa Passerini’s Bodies Across Borders in Europe project, can teach us about European identity.
Read MoreRecognition of Multi-Truth in an era of Post-Truth
In this post, OHMA student Tomoko Kubota (2017) explores how we can make meaning of oral history in an era of Post-Truth. This article is the first in a three-part series exploring Dr. Luisa Passerini’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Interviewing Artists: Intersubjectivity and Visuality.”
Read MoreThe Identity of an Oral Historian
In this post, current OHMA student Shira Hudson reflects on how Mi’Jan Celie Tho-Biaz’s lecture inspired her to consider what it means to identify as an oral historian.
Read MoreFirst, Take Care of Yourself Thoughts on Storytelling and Wellness
In this post, Robin Weinberg, member of the 2016 cohort, talks about how we, as story collectors, oral historians and engaged listeners, need to make sure we have an toolbox of techniques to take care of ourselves.
Read MoreI Don’t Need to Be the Expert of All Those Other Things
Photo credit: Ali Lapetina
Shot onsite during 2017 Burnside Farm artist residency in Detroit, Michigan (with permission/gratitude to Kate Daughdrill, Burnside Farm founder).
In this post OHMA student Elly Kalfus (2017-2018) discusses how Mi’Jan Celie Tho-Biaz’s approach to designing and facilitating oral history storytelling events led her to a deeper understanding of the value of collaboration and humility.
Read MoreAnnouncing OHMA's 2017-2018 Workshop Series
Oral history is an art. The practice of oral history is creative -- in interviews we make narratives together with our interviewees, imagining worlds, telling stories, creating characters. Oral history can also be used to document the arts, to tell the stories of painters and dancers and actors and writers and the worlds they live in. And the arts are a powerful means to amplify and interpret oral histories, transforming them into literary narratives, building theater or music or dance performances from them, using them to create documentaries. This year, we will explore all of these many intersections of oral history and the arts, asking what unique contributions an oral history approach can make to artistic practice, and how oral history can help us to think about art and its role in the world.
Read More
From Individual Experience to Political Expression: A Discussion of How Specific Experiences Are Presented in Movements
In this post, current OHMA student Monica Liuting (2016) reflects how Terrell Frazier uses oral history interviews to frame personal experiences in political expressions. This article is the last in a four-part series exploring Terrell’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Becoming an Organizer: Narrative, Identity and Social Action.”
Read MoreHonoring Experience through Oral History: Reflections on Teaching a High School Walmart Employee
Image courtesy of Wikimedia
In this final post in our four-part series, Heather Michael talks about her experiences teaching high school students who were navigating their lives in school, while working for Walmart. She 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,” honing in on the parallels between the insight Reich gained through his project and the value of using oral history as a way to validate experiences.
Read MoreReconsidering the Narrative: Intersectional Identities and Community Organizing
In this piece, Nialah Edari discusses how Terrell Frazier’s work contrasts the ways in which we contextualize sociology and oral history by looking at how he applies both approaches in his assessment of the participants within his research. This article is the last in a three-part series exploring Terrell’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Becoming an Organizer: Narrative, Identity and Social Action.”
Read MoreThe Net Worth of Social Movements and Organizing Networks
In this post, Brian Sarfo explores how Terrell Frazier's work situates the importance of relationships and humanizing the organizer through sociology and oral history. This article is the first in a three-part series exploring Terrell Frazier’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Becoming an Organizer: Narrative, Identity and Social Action.”
Read MoreThe Intersection of Oral History and Sociology: Using the Life History Method to Better Understand Social Movements
In this post, OHMA student Steve Fuchs (2016) explores the role oral history plays in helping sociologists better understand social movements. This article is the first in a three-part series exploring Terrell Frazier’s recent OHMA Workshop Series lecture, “Becoming an Organizer: Narrative, Identity and Social Action.”
Read MorePresenting History in Political Limitation: Disciplines and the Truth
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 More