2010 Annual Summer Institute – Columbia University

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.