SUMMER INSTITUTE ON ORAL HISTORY
Documenting Memories of Struggle and Resistance:
Social Change and Social Memories
June 18 - 29, 2001
This year's program focused on the challenges and complexities of documenting memories of social and political change through interpreting ways in which individuals remember their participation in social movements, communities and long term political struggles. Faculty and seminar leaders explored the uses of oral history method and theory to document and interpret social change and social conflict, looking at ways in which individual and social memory intersect and how individuals construct social narratives and historical explanations. Attention was given to the debates in oral history over how group memories are formed, the interplay of individual and so-called collective memory, as well as the particular challenges of using oral history to document change in contemporary communities actively engaged in political and social movements.
In addition to lectures, presentations and discussions on the themes of the Institute, we offered intermediate level workshops on interviewing, developing community history projects and documentary methods for recording oral histories through sound and video. The Summer Institute also featured video and audio documentaries, and visits to area museums and archives.
FACULTY
Leslie Brown received her Ph.D. from Duke University where she co-coordinated the project Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South, that resulted in more than 1,200 interviews. Currently she is an assistant professor at Washington University in St. Louis, holding a joint appointment in history and African and Afro-American studies.
Mary Marshall Clark is the Acting Director of the Oral History Research Office at Columbia University. Formerly, she was an oral historian and filmmaker at the New York Times. She is vice-president, president-elect of the Oral History Association. Ms. Clark lectures widely on the uses and theories of oral history.
Ann Cvetkovich is Associate Professor of English at the University of Texas, Austin. She was a Rockefeller Fellow at the Oral History Research Office in 1999-2000. She is author of Mixed Feelings: Feminism, Mass Culture, and Victorian Sensationalism. She will be presenting work in progress from her forthcoming book, Trauma, Sexuality and Lesbian Public Cultures which includes a chapter on the history of lesbian AIDS activism in ACT-UP.
Alexander Freund received his Ph.D. from the University of Bremen. He is co-author of "Exploring Myths in Women's Narratives" which was awarded the Oral History Association 1996 Article Award. In 1999-2000, he was a Rockefeller Fellow at the Oral History Research Office. He will present work from his current oral history project about German immigrants' ways of dealing with the Nazi past and their relations with Jews in North America, 1945-present.
Ronald J. Grele is the former director of the Oral History Research Office. He is author of Envelopes of Sound: The Art of Oral History as well as numerous articles on the theory and method of oral history. He is past president of the Oral History Association, and lectures widely on the theories and uses of oral history.
Alessandro Portelli is Professor of American Literature at the University of Rome. He is author of The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History, The Battle of Valle Guilia: Oral History and the Art of Dialogue and most recently, The Order Has Been Carried Out: Rome, the Ardeantine Caves, and Memory, winner of the prestigious Viareggio prize in Italy. His essays on oral history and narrative have appeared in many journals throughout the world.
Linda Shopes is a historian at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. She has worked to develop and write about community history projects throughout the state of Pennsylvania. She is co-editor of The Baltimore Book: New Views of Local History and is past president of the Oral History Association.
Anne Valk teaches oral history, public history and women’s history at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. She was the co-coordinator, with Leslie Brown, of the Behind the Veil: Documenting African American Life in the Jim Crow South, and was the founder of Community Stories, a community history project focused on youth involving partnerships between the Duke Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University and area high schools and middle schools.
PROGRAM
Sunday, June 17, 2001
Reception: Home of Ronald J. Grele, 90 Morningside Drive, Apartment 3-A
Monday, June 18 [413 Dodge Hall]
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Introductions: Faculty and Fellows
12:00 noon - 2:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
The History of Oral History: Is It a Movement?
Ronald J. Grele
3:30 - 3:45 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Responses: Faculty/Fellows
Tuesday, June 19
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Documenting the Social Memory of the Fosse Ardeatine Massacre
Alessandro Portelli
10:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Group Discussion
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Introduction to Fellows Projects
4:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Tour of the Oral History Research Office
Wednesday, June 20
9 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
The Behind the Veil Project: An Overview
Leslie Brown, Anne Valk
10:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. - 12: 30 p.m.
Making Community History Work: Building a Project From the Ground Up
Workshop Leader: Linda Shopes
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Community History Workshop, continued
3:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
The Behind the Veil Project: Lessons Learned
Leslie Brown, Anne Valk
Thursday, June 21
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Interviewing Workshop, Part I: Distinctive Features of Oral History
Faculty
12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Interviewing Workshop, Part II: Practice Interviews
3:00 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. Break
3:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Practice Interviews, continued
Friday, June 22
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Sound Workshop: Documentary Production and Methods
Steve Rowland, Culture Works
12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Sound Workshop, continued
Saturday, June, 23
10 a.m. Trip to Ellis Island
7:00 p.m. Sail Around the Harbor - South Street Seaport
Monday, June 25
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Oral History and New Media, Part I: "History Matters"
Pennee Bender, Associate Director, the American Social History Project
(room 306 Butler Library)
10:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Oral History and New Media, Part II
Ted Bongiovanni, Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, Columbia University
12:00 noon - 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Disseminating Oral History Interviews: Ethical Issues and Public Mission
Mary Marshall Clark
3:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m. Break
4:00 p.m. - Tour of "AIDS: A Living Archive," the Jewish Museum.
Tour led by Jane Rosett and Jean Carlomusto, creators of the exhibit.
Tuesday, June 26
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
"Rebels With A Cause: The Hopes, Rebellions, and Repressions of the 1960s"
Film Presentation and Discussion
(room 833 Butler Library)
11:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. Break
11:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Documenting Social Change and Revolt: An Oral History of the 1960s
Ronald J. Grele
12:30 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Writing Oral History Memories of Unrest and Uprising: Harlan County, USA
Alessandro Portelli
3:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. Break
3:45 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Group Discussion
Wednesday, June 27
9:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
Documenting Activists on Activism: Lesbian Public Cultures in ACT-UP
Ann Cvetkovich
10:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. - 12 noon Group Discussion
12 noon - 1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Discussion: Insider/Outsider Interviewing
Faculty
2:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. Break
3:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Memory Struggles After 1945: Germans, Jews, and the Holocaust in North America over the Last Half Century
Alexander Freund
Discussion
Thursday, June 28
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Interpreting Oral History Narratives of Social Change Across Gender, Cultures and Generations
Faculty Roundtable
11:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m. Break
11:15 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Group Discussion
12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. Lunch
2:00 p.m.- 5:00 p.m. Presentation and Discussion of Fellows Projects
Friday, June 29
Evaluation and Farewells
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