Category: Uncategorized

Interview with audio expert

This week, we’re pushing the boundaries a bit to bring you an interview with Dana Gerber-Margie, who publishes The Audio Signal, a “weekly digest about audio.” Troy and I are huge fans of the newsletter, as are Pop Up Archive and even the Wall Street Journal. The interview covers some of the nuts and bolts of sorting through massive amounts of audio, as well as Gerber-Margie’s philosophy on the importance of audio. If you’d like to discuss an innovative project you’re working on, consider submitting it for publication on this blog.  For full story click here.

his week, we’re pushing the boundaries a bit to bring you an interview with Dana Gerber-Margie, who publishes The Audio Signal, a “weekly digest about audio.” Troy and I are huge fans of the newsletter, as are Pop Up Archive and even the Wall Street Journal. The interview covers some of the nuts and bolts of sorting through massive amounts of audio, as well as Gerber-Margie’s philosophy on the importance of audio. If you’d like to discuss an innovative project you’re working on, consider submitting it for publication on this blog. – See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2015/10/audio-signal-interview/#sthash.B2Q8eOBy.dpuf

Top Twitter debates at OHA (in USA) meeting

Some of you open a can of soup and tweet about it, others of us would never know about your tweet since we don’t use Twitter. Others at this year’s Oral History Association annual meeting put their phones away for a second to do what they do best: listen. Although the conversation continued in between sessions and into the evenings in quips of 140 characters, we worried that it was buried underneath the huge volume of tweets and retweets. Whether polite or Luddite, many oral historians missed debates to which they contribute offline with thought and authority. Here’s your chance to catch up and weigh in on the top five Tampa Twitter debates when you click here.

ome of you open a can of soup and tweet about it, others of us would never know about your tweet since we don’t use Twitter. Others at this year’s Oral History Association annual meeting put their phones away for a second to do what they do best: listen. Although the conversation continued in between sessions and into the evenings in quips of 140 characters, we worried that it was buried underneath the huge volume of tweets and retweets. Whether polite or Luddite, many oral historians missed debates to which they contribute offline with thought and authority. Here’s your chance to catch up and weigh in on the top five Tampa Twitter debates. – See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2015/10/tampa-twitter-oha2015/#sthash.55IpdqNc.dpuf
ome of you open a can of soup and tweet about it, others of us would never know about your tweet since we don’t use Twitter. Others at this year’s Oral History Association annual meeting put their phones away for a second to do what they do best: listen. Although the conversation continued in between sessions and into the evenings in quips of 140 characters, we worried that it was buried underneath the huge volume of tweets and retweets. Whether polite or Luddite, many oral historians missed debates to which they contribute offline with thought and authority. Here’s your chance to catch up and weigh in on the top five Tampa Twitter debates. – See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2015/10/tampa-twitter-oha2015/#sthash.55IpdqNc.dpuf

The Coal Face

Released earlier this year, Tom Doig's The Coal Face describes the day last year that fire took hold in Victoria's Hazelwood coal mine and burned for one-and-a-half months. This month the book was the joint winner of the inaugural Oral History Victoria Education Innovation Award. The judges described Doig's work as an “outstanding fusion of oral history, journalism and political activism”.  For full story click here.

Women who rock

What do Pussy Galore’s Julie Cafritz and No Wave rocker Lydia Lunch have in common with feminist and Smith College alumna Gloria Steinem? Their oral histories can now all be found in Smith College’s Sophia Smith Collection, an internationally recognized repository of manuscripts, archives, photographs, periodicals and other primary sources in women’s history.  For full story click here.

Colorado’s floods

September 2015 marked the second anniversary of the floods that ravaged Colorado’s Front Range. In an interview about the devastation, Jamestown Mayor Tara Schoedinger recalled a dramatic moment following days of rain: “My husband … ran outside and said, ‘There goes the gulch.’ … He came back in less than a minute later, and he said, ‘Joey’s house collapsed, and he’s in it. Call 9-1-1.’”
In Queensland we have had very similar experiences and we can learn from them, read the full story here.

Wartime reflection

The military is a total institution and army chaplains are embedded in it.  For full story click here.

he military is a total institution and army chaplains are embedded deeply within it. – See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2015/10/wartime-oral-history/#sthash.hLWdvSG6.dpuf
he military is a total institution and army chaplains are embedded deeply within it. They wear the uniforms and the rank, they salute and are saluted. I was reminded how deeply embedded we are when I arrived at the US Army Chaplain Center and School at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina about two weeks ago. I was there to fulfill my obligations as a reserve chaplain for two weeks. After that, I would be shipping back to Austin, Texas, the post-hippy, techy, progressive university town I call home. – See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2015/10/wartime-oral-history/#sthash.hLWdvSG6.dpufhe military is a total institution and army chaplains are embedded deeply within it. They wear the uniforms and the rank, they salute and are saluted. I was reminded how deeply embedded we are when I arrived at the US Army Chaplain Center and School at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina about two weeks ago. I was there to fulfill my obligations as a reserve chaplain for two weeks. After that, I would be shipping back to Austin, Texas, the post-hippy, techy, progressive university town I call home. – See more at: http://blog.oup.com/2015/10/wartime-oral-history/#sthash.hLWdvSG6.dpuf

Aboriginal storytelling accurate

The importance placed on the oral traditions of Aboriginal people should be re-evaluated in light of recent developments in understanding, according to an academic from the University of New England.  A team, made up of academics from UNE and Sunshine Coast University, has compared Aboriginal stories about sea level rises to an independently established chronology of sea level rise between 18,000 and 7,000 years ago.  Professor Nicholas Reid from UNE said the team found the 21 stories analysed to be an accurate representation of what happened. For full story click here.

Paul Keating oral history

As Paul Keating tells it, it all began at the Hoyts Civic Theatre at Bankstown, NSW, in 1955. He was 11 years old and utterly transfixed – and for years later haunted – by Jedda, the first Australian feature film to use Aboriginal actors in lead roles.

"It was a very powerful film set in the Northern Territory and, in a way, it mirrored aspects of the stolen generations," he tells Kerry O'Brien in Keating, the 794-page narrated oral history of his life in politics. "It ended in tragedy for the two Aboriginal people and left me with a sense that this was their place and we were all interlopers."