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Nov. 3: OHMA Fall Open House

  • Knox Hall 509 606 West 122nd Street New York, NY, 10027 United States (map)

Can you envision yourself in our 10th cohort? The Columbia University Oral History Masters Program community is over 100 oral historians strong and growing! We're even offering two $10,000 Future Voices Fellowships to admitted students next year.

Please join us for an Oral History M.A. program open house on Thursday, November 3, 2016 at 6:30 p.m. in Knox Hall 509. Refreshments will be served.

OHMA OPEN HOUSE

  • Information session
  • Learn about our new Future Voices Fellowship
  • Meet OHMA students and alums
  • Presentation by Nyssa Chow (2015)
  • Mini-interviewing workshop, taught by OHMA Co-Directors Mary Marshall Clark & Amy Starecheski

OHMA is the first program of its kind: a one-year interdisciplinary Master of Arts degree training students in oral history method and theory. Our graduates work in museums, historical societies, advocacy organizations, media, the arts, education, human rights, and development. OHMA is also excellent preparation for doctoral work in fields like anthropology, history, journalism, and American studies or professional degrees in law, education, or social work. 

Jointly run by the Columbia Center for Oral History Research, one of the preeminent oral history centers in the world, and INCITE, a lively hub for interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences, OHMA connects students with the intellectual resources of a major research university, and with the intimate society of a small cohort of talented students.

During a year at OHMA, students learn the skills of digital audio and video production and editing, digital archiving, oral history project design and interviewing, and both historical and social science analysis. Working with an OHMA faculty member, each student is guided through the process of creating a thesis or capstone project. Past projects have taken the form of academic and creative essays, film and audio documentaries, performances, exhibits, and multimedia websites. OHMA students also have access to elective courses taught anywhere within the University and exclusive oral history internship opportunities.

In this open house, Nyssa Chow (2015) will be presenting a portion of her thesis, which focuses on the lived experience of history as told by three women born in Trinidad and Tobago in the 1920s. What was life in the British colony like for these women? In "Still.Life.," you will hear accounts that are grounded in that time and place, but also stories that are timeless, deeply personal and universally human.

Nyssa is a graduate of Columbia University’s MFA program, and a recipient of the Hollywood Foreign Press Award, the Women in Film and Television Fellowship, the Toms Fellowship, and the Academy of Motion Pictures Foundation Award. She is the 2012 recipient of the Sloan Foundation Grant. She’s won the Zaki Gordon Award for Excellence in Screenwriting. Born in Trinidad, she has a particular interest in multimedia experiments in storytelling, and collaborations that bring oral history and education closer together.

Please review our admissions page for further information and RSVP to our Eventbrite page and Facebook event. We looking forward to meeting you in person on November 3!