Times of Crisis, Times of Change
Human Stories on the Edge of Transformation

October 27-31, 2010
Sheraton Hotel Downtown
Atlanta, Georgia

2010 OHA Annual Meeting: Call for Papers

Help others to share in the Oral History Association 2009 Annual Meeting, “Moving Beyond the Interview.” Register on the OHA Network and contibute to the blog the Oral History Association Annual meeting blog under Blogging–> Create Entries in the menu. The post will be submitted to a blog administrator for approval. Anyone attending the conference can join in.

The Oral History Association is meeting in Louisville, Kentucky this week. Due to the interest in the Tribute to Studs Terkel Plenary Session, the event and the Welcome Reception have been moved to a  larger venue.

Instead of the studios of Louisville Public Media, the event will be at the
Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts, 501 W. Main Street, Louisville,
quite close to the Galt House conference hotel (about 4 blocks).

OHA,  joined by local hosts Louisville Public Media and the Kentucky Center,
look forward to welcoming you to Louisville for this very special event on
Wednesday, October 14, 6-8PM.

Recognizing that a clear and concise guide can be useful to all practitioners of oral history, the Oral History Association has since 1968 published a series of statements aimed at outlining a set of principles and obligations for all those who use this methodology.

Building on those earlier documents, but representing changes in an evolving field, the OHA now offers General Principles for Oral History and Best Practices for Oral History as summaries of the organization’s most important principles and best practices for the pre-interview preparation, the conduct of the interview, and the preservation and use of oral histories.

OHA members will vote on the latest guidelines revisions at the Oral History Association Annual Meeting in Louisville, Oct. 14-18.

Review the current version of the Evaluation Guidelines.

The Oral History Association’s 43rd annual meeting, will be held  in Louisville, Kentucky, a city and state rich in civil rights history,  with a vital tradition of documentary work.  “From the start our aim with ‘Moving Beyond the Interview‘ was to ‘move’ the conference—not just this year but also in future years—’outside of the box.’”

Download the program for “Moving Beyond the Interview” the 2009 OHA Annual Meeting, and join us October, 14-18, 2009; read the program and then  Register for the annual meeting online. Contact the Galt House Hotel, 140 North 4th Ave., Louisville, KY 40202, 502-589-5200,  800-843-4258 for hotel reservations conference rates are available until September 13, only if our block is still available. Be sure to register early.

“Moving Beyond the Interview” features conference threads and opportunities to extend the conversation in synthesizing sessions on Sunday morning:

• Oral History as Art and Advocacy frames panels that explore the full range of artistic dimensions of oral  history, recognizing that advocacy is embedded in many of these interpretive performances.
• Oral History as Teaching and Service Learning provides a framework for panels that examine a range of issues involved in student training, and has been deployed to build communities and knowledge through university and school interaction.
• Oral History as Film and Image provides a border for those panels that connect images to oral history, either through photography or film.
• Oral History and Folklife in Community is an umbrella for panels that consider the boundaries of  community or the ways that oral history and folklife contributes to the community-building process.
• Oral History as Activism and Social Justice is a thread that borders and encompasses work with a strong commitment to social, political, and/or economic change, recognizing the often implicit underpinnings of many oral history projects.
• Oral History in Museums, Archives, and Digital Environments provides a rubric through which to consider two disparate, though often interconnected, trends: the development of digital tools and exhibit  formats and the expansion of oral history use in museums, as well as increased attention to the archiving of oral histories.
• Oral History as Research Methodology provides a thematic structure for panels that use oral history in  service of a disciplinary research endeavor or take on oral history as a mode of understanding.

Featured plenaries community-based, collaborative work with Boston-based installation artist Shannon Flattery of Touchable Stories,  Richard Cándida Smith of UC Berkeley’s Regional  Oral History Office; NYU historian, curator, organizer Jack (John Kuo Wei) Tchen, co-founder of the Museum of Chinese in America (MoCA), sociologist Caroline Knowles and director of the Centre for Urban and Community Research (CUCR) at Goldsmiths, University of London; and California writer and documentarian David Bacon. Featured presentations include both a special tribute to Studs Terkel and the work of Appalshop with its 40-year history as an internationally renowned non-profit devoted to the use of oral history, storytelling, community involvement and social change.

The Oral History Association welcomes community historians, curators, archivists, teachers, students, journalists, documentarians, U.S. and international scholars, federal historians, and others interested in doing oral history. Newcomers to OHA are welcomed at a special Newcomers Breakfast. Join us!

Scholarship applications must be submitted by July 31, 2009 for the Oral History Association 2009 Annual Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, October 14-18, 2009.

The XVI International Oral History Conference, “Between Past and Future: Oral History, Memory and Meaning” will be held in Prague, Czech Republic, July 7-11, 2010. Deadline for proposals is September 6, 2009. For more information, visit http://www.ioha2010prague.cz For online submission go to: http://www.ioha2010prague.cz/on-line-proposal-submission

Apply now for the Oral History Emerging Crises Research Fund Grant.  Deadline: April 15, 2009.

The Oral History Association announces a grant of up to $3,000 to undertake oral history research in situations of crisis research in the United States and internationally.

2009 OHA Annual Meeting
October, 14-18, 2009, Louisville Kentucky

Moving Beyond the Interview

The Oral History Association invites proposals for papers and presentations for its 2009 annual meeting to be held October 14-18, 2009, at the Galt House Hotel in Louisville , Kentucky .

OHA Program Committees often choose a focal theme for the annual meeting from among the many dimensions of oral history practice. Our approach for 2009 is a bit different: we identify a broader umbrella under which we hope the meeting, structurally and substantively, can put many of these dimensions in productive dialogue with each other.

Collecting and preserving stories via interviews long has been the central focus of oral history method and practice. The 2009 Annual Meeting celebrates this basic unit of our field, the interview, by placing it within a circle of critical issues necessarily encountered in working with oral histories—in “doing something” with the materials oral historians collect. Too often relegated to the methodological sidelines, these include technological, philosophical, analytical, archival, collaborative, ethical, educational, and public aspects of working with oral history interviews.

See Oral History Association Annual Meeting Site for online submission.  No longer available. Use email submission.

See Call for Papers for email submission.  Deadline Extended till March 6.

Welcome to the Oral History Association’s new home on the web. New to this website is the OHA social network, where participants can make connections, share interests, and work with OHA committees and regional groups.  On the new OHA wiki, we look forward to your help building a resource for oral history on the web.

 In the weeks to come we will be adding new content and features.  We also will be delighted to receive your suggestions. To share these, please click the Comment link and add your ideas.