Kate Brenner reflects on Sam Robson's workshop. This workshop featured a staged reading of Robson’s one-act play Timothy and Mary, which is based on the oral histories of two interviewees from his OHMA thesis. This talk took place on Thursday, September 11, 2014.
Read MoreDecoding Language in the Service of Social Justice
Steven Palmer reflects on Brian Purnell's workshop, which explored questions about when and where oral historians should enter products of oral history. This talk took place on Thursday, November 6, 2014.
Read MoreRepresentation Matters
Liz Hibbard reflects on Tei Okamoto's workshop, which discussed two projects that explore the intersection of oral history and public health. This talk took place on Thursday, October 2, 2014.
Read MoreStories for Justice
Leyla Vural reflects on Sayantani DasGupta's workshop on narrative humility and medical listening in oral history. This talk took place on Thursday, October 16, 2014.
Read MoreOral History as Narrative Medicine
Erica Wrightson reflects on Sayantani DasGupta's workshop on narrative humility and medical listening in oral history. This talk took place on Thursday, October 16, 2014.
Read MoreThe Power of Editing
Check out Leonard Cox's reflection on Luke Gerwe's presentation about Voice of Witness and cultivating oral history networks.
Read MoreVoice of Witness and the fight against the commodification of narrative
Helen Gibb reflects on Luke Gerwe's presentation about Voice of Witness and maintaining oral history networks. Follow the links in the post for audio clips.
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Podcast: OHMA Associate Director Amy Starecheski in the Oral History Review
OHMA Associate Director Amy Starecheski wrote the lead article in the Summer/Fall 2014 issue of the Oral History Review. "Squatting History: The Power of Oral History as History-Making Practice" explores the ways in which an in intergenerational group of activists have used oral history to pass on knowledge through public discussions about the past. Check out OHR's podcast about it, in which Troy Reeves, managing editor at OHR, interviews Amy about the project. Amy also discusses her involvement with the upcoming Annual Meeting of the Oral History Association.
Amy Starecheski. 2014. "Squatting History: The Power of Oral History as History-Making Practice," Oral History Review 41(2): 187-216.
Having trouble listening to the podcast? Try it on Soundcloud or download the mp3.
Explore Past Posts
[Workshop Reflection] Museums, Dreams, and Possibilities
I like visiting museums. No matter where I have lived, I have always made it a point to visit them. Having a great love of Native American history, when I moved to New York City to attend Columbia University, the first museum I visited was the Museum of the American Indian. This museum is located in a very large building in southern Manhattan that features revolving exhibits throughout the year. What I noticed, upon my visit, was the lack of oral history in the telling of the Native American experience.
Read More[Workshop Reflection] Echoes: Intersubjectivity and Self-examination in Oral History
Oral history, like all academic disciplines, exists in a constant state of evolution and self-examination. The field as it stands today, a trans-disciplinary mélange of ideas from gender studies, anthropology, history, psychology, sociology, and many more, is drastically different than prior decades.
Read More[Workshop Reflection] Influences & Ideas: An Interviewing Autobiography with Sady Sullivan
To ask questions in oral history is not just to ask about someone’s life as a whole, but their plural lives across personal and public globes. The field is based on going beyond the surface of the present, and exploring the biographical basis for individual motion and motivation.
Read More[Workshop Reflection] Oral History and Video: Exploring what’s possible
Oral history is evolving and continues to be a platform to study and propose change and activism. What we’ve come to understand as oral history has been turned upside down.
Catherine Charlebois, Curator with the Centre D’histoire De Montreal, adds another sentence to the developing definition of oral history.
Read More[Workshop Reflection] Beyond the Archives: Oral History and Community Dialogue in Brooklyn
As an oral historian, I am committed to using my work to engage communities in the present. In keeping with this commitment, I would probably steer clear of institutions with names like “Brooklyn Historical Society.” However, the name Brooklyn Historical Society (BHS) belies the innovation and deep level of community engagement that this institution and its projects embody.
Read More[Workshop Reflection] Who’s listening?
Once upon a time, oral histories were recorded solely by researchers who tucked them away neatly into archives deemed for academic research; many were never heard from again. However, with the variety of technology available today, many former methods have been called into question so that valuable records may be fully utilized by historians as well as non-historians.
Read More[Workshop Reflection] Embracing Divine Purpose
My curriculum vitae has become as significant to my success as the actual
professional and academic experiences that fill the two page long document. Many
of these experiences I cherished; however, there were quite a few that I simply
endured. Right after college I agreed to be a researcher for a start-up company that
never quite started and never actually paid me for the days I spent in the office
alone while my boss made up and broke up with her boyfriend.
Congratulations to Nicki Pombier Berger!
This summer Nicki Pombier Berger [OHMA 2013] launched an innovative oral history project in partnership with Toward Independent Living and Learning, Inc (TILL), a Massachusetts-based agency serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.
Read More
[Workshop Reflection] Lessons in Sacrifice from the Poor Clare Colettine Nuns
After reading from Abbie Reese’s book Dedicated to God, I was struck with some vague notion that being an oral historian is not all that different from being a nun. It seems absurd. What insights can a life devoted to God shine on the practice of oral history? Well, I noticed some patterns, mainly revolving around this word: sacrifice. I read about the sacrifices the nuns are required to make, including vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and enclosure. A nun makes her vows, including removing herself from the world, in order to pray for humankind, or to put it simply, to help people reach heaven.
Read More