ORAL HISTORY TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES – INCLUDING A NEW GRADUATE INTENSIVE COURSE
Please circulate details of these forthcoming training opportunities offered by Oral History Victoria (OHV). Full details of each course below or via the link.
Graduate Oral History Intensive (four-day online course, 19-20 April and 3-4 May 2024)
Conducting oral history interviews on sensitive or painful subjects (one day online course, 16 March 2024)
Remember to Press Record: Getting Started with Oral History (one day in person course, Melbourne, Saturday 23 March)
‘Ask Al’: Oral History Advice Sessions (online, last Tuesday each month)
GRADUATE ORAL HISTORY INTENSIVE
4-day online course, 19-20 April and 3-4 May 2024, offered by Oral History Victoria
Taught by Carla Pascoe Leahy, Sarah Rood and Alistair Thomson (for trainer profiles – see https://events.humanitix.com/graduate-oral-history-intensive)
Are you a PhD, Masters or Honours student, or a post-doc, about to start a research project using oral history – and need training to get you on the right track? Perhaps you’ve already started a graduate oral history project and want advice and support? You may be a historian, or you work in another social science or humanities discipline that uses life story interviews. This four-day, online training course could be just what you need.
In Autumn 2024, three of Australia’s leading oral historians, in partnership with Oral History Victoria, are pioneering an oral history intensive course aimed at university research students. We will teach you how to plan an oral history project and apply for ethics approval. You’ll learn how to create excellent interviews and document the recordings for use in research. We’ll explore approaches to analysing interviews and interpreting memories. And we’ll consider how to write a thesis using oral history as well as other types of oral history productions.
You will be active participants in the teaching and learning: reading a selection of key texts, bringing examples and issues from you own research, workshopping issues with the group, conducting practice interviews, discussing interview extracts from each participant, and developing a peer support group of graduate oral history researchers from around Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia. Each day school will be taught online via Zoom, from 9.30am-4pm Australian Eastern Standard time. The course will be limited to 18 participants.
Course outline
Day 1 Friday 19 April – Planning Your Oral History Project & Seeking Ethics Approval
Day 2 Saturday 20 April – Creating & Documenting Oral History Interviews
(fortnight break while participants conduct practice interviews)
Day 3 Friday 3 May – Interpreting Oral Histories
Day 4 Saturday 4 May – Making (Oral) Histories in Writing and other Media
Course fees:
$500 for Oral History Victoria and Oral History Australia members;
$750 non-members
We anticipate participants will draw on funds from their own or departmental graduate research budgets. For students without access to research funds, bursaries might be available from state and territory oral history associations.
Registration via https://events.humanitix.com/graduate-oral-history-intensive
Contact: for further information and to discuss the course, please contact: Alistair.Thomson@monash.edu
CONDUCTING ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS ON SENSITIVE OR PAINFUL SUBJECTS
Saturday 16 March 2024, 9.30am-4.00pm, online via Zoom
Taught by Sarah Rood and Alistair Thomson (see trainer profiles here)
Interviews on topics such as war, natural disaster, illness or violence are likely to be challenging for the interviewee and the interviewer. But any oral history interview can trigger difficult and painful remembering and will require an appropriate response and appropriate preparation in the first place. This OHV online Advanced Workshop by two of Australia’s most experienced oral history trainers will consider: the personal and ethical responsibilities of the oral historian; the range of ways in which interviews might generate difficult or painful remembering; minimising risk in project planning and communication; issues and approaches for interviewing on sensitive subjects and responding to difficult remembering; the safety of the interviewee and interviewer; and responsibilities and options after the interview.
Participants in this advanced workshop must have interview experience or have participated in an OHV Oral History Beginners workshop. You will be encouraged to bring relevant examples from your own oral history practice for discussion. In 2023 this course was full booked with a long waiting list, so don’t delay your registration.
For details of course fees and to register, visit our Humanitix listing here. Please note that tickets are first made available to OHV members, with non-members able to register a week later (from the 14th February).
REMEMBER TO PRESS RECORD: GETTING STARTED WITH ORAL HISTORY
Saturday 23rd March, In-person at North Melbourne Library (Hotham Room)
Trainers: Miranda Francis & Nicolette Snowden
Further details and registration for this OHV Beginner course here.
‘ASK AL’ – ORAL HISTORY ADVICE SESSIONS
Online Via Zoom, (5.30-6.30 on the last Tuesday of each month)
Hosted by OHV Committee Member and President of Oral History Australia, Al Thomson – who has been teaching oral history since the 1980s – this monthly Oral History Advice Session provides an opportunity to ask questions and share experiences and discoveries in oral history. Whether you are an absolute beginner or experienced practitioner, join Al and other oral historians to talk through your oral history project and issues.
Details and zoom link here.
