The Columbia University Oral History Research Office is delighted to announce the 2010 Annual Summer Institute. The Institute, “Oral History from the Ground Up: Space, Place and Memory”, will be held from June 7- June 18, 2010. The Institute will examine the meaning that space, place and memory hold in producing individual, social, cultural and political narratives.
From a theoretical perspective, the Institute will focus on oral history as a space and place-producing practice, and on the uses of oral history in documenting, commemorating and memorializing historical events, cultural memories and activist projects. Mary Marshall Clark, director of OHRO, will explore the outcomes of the September 11, 2001 Narrative and Memory Project in relation to the interpretation and commemoration of the September 11, 2001 events in the New York urban area. Alessandro Portelli, of Rome, Italy, will present on his forthcoming book on Harlan County, Kentucky – They Say in Harlan County: An Oral History – based on more than 30 years of fieldwork. Institute co-director Amy Starecheski will lead interpretative field trips to area museums and urban sites where oral history is being used in innovative ways to make significant interventions in public memory. Elizabeth Grefrath and Lance Thurner (OHRO) will explore the importance of detention and imprisonment as a space of silencing voices, focusing on current projects on the death penalty and Guantanamo Bay Detention Center. Mark Naison and Brian Purnell, of the Bronx African American History Project, will join the Institute to present on the significance of oral history in documenting and developing Bronx communities.
Core faculty will also include OHRO director emeritus Ronald J. Grele, and Linda Shopes, editor and former president of the Oral History Association. Workshops will be held on project design and management, audio and video documentary techniques, and editing for publication.
Applications will be considered until March 1, 2010, although early decisions are available for those who need to apply for funding or visas. Applications can be downloaded at http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/indiv/oral/summer/2010.html; please follow all instructions for completing and sending the application. The dates for the 2010 Summer Institute will be June 7 to June 18. Tuition will be $1500. Limited tuition scholarships will be available.
Please contact Elizabeth Grefrath (ecg2109@columbia.edu) with all 2010 Summer Institute questions.