For 28-year-old Chanakya Vyas, his grandmother’s stories about her childhood were more than just bedtime stories. With roots in Zanzibar, East Africa, Mr. Vyas has been trying to piece together his family’s history. One step towards accomplishing this is the oral history course being offered by the Centre for Public History, Bangalore. Mr. Vyas is one of the 15 participants at the first such course offered by the institute, and the first of its kind in India. For full story click here.
Tag: oral history
LGBT stories – Princeton University
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender alumni attendants at the recent Every Voice conference had the opportunity to record their personal narratives as part of an audio and visual oral history project organized by the Alumni Association of Princeton University and funded by the institutional equity and diversity efforts of the Office of the Provost. Representatives from the alumni association conducted 24 interviews during the three-day conference. The participants represented a wide range of class years, with alumni from the 1950s to the 2010s sharing their experiences as LGBT students — whether out or not — at the University. For full story click here.
Taiwan oral history project
The Ministry of Culture in Taipei said it is planning a project to record the oral history of Taiwan and store the information in an online database. The project will give Taiwanese of all backgrounds a chance to relate, record and share their stories, according to the ministry.
Oral history tells Palestinian story
Nehad Khader argues Palestinians must insist that their experiences and those of their grandparents are honest and sufficient and that their oral histories may be used where their history is undocumented. For full story click here.
LGBT history in dance form (USA)
Sean Dorsey, openly transgender choreographer, winner of two Isadora Duncan awards, and one of Dance Magazine's "Top 25 to Watch" in 2010, continues his project of making modern dance narratives about queer experience. Dorsey conducted two years of archival and oral history research to produce The Secret History of Love, which chronicles covert love in the LGBT community, from outlawed affairs in 1920s speakeasies to wartime flings, from first love to hate violence to long-lasting relationships. For full story click here.
Iraq War
As the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war’s start approaches, Lens highlights Photojournalists on War, an oral history of the conflict as recounted by those who documented it from the front lines. The book, published this month by the University of Texas Press, was written by Michael Kamber, who covered the war for eight years for The New York Times. For full story with many photographs and related interviews click here.
Importance of Local History
Louise Prowse (pictured) is PhD Candidate from Sydney University looking at the significance of local history and has chosen five towns as case studies for her thesis, including Gilgandra and Mudgee. Louise is looking at how history is recorded since the 1950s, in local historical societies, museums, buildings and local media. In the radio interview at this site she talks about the importance of local history and how oral history has improved the status of that history. For full story and to download the interview, click here.
Chinese integration in Australia
"There's nothing special about me," Alfred Whee insists. But his story is vital to understanding what life was like for the generation of Chinese immigrants who lived during the White Australia Policy period. Mr Whee, of Cranbourne, was one of 10 Chinese Australians interviewed for an oral history project for the Chinese Museum. For full story click here.
Birthing experiences
When Gina Temple-Rhodes asked 11 women, ages 89 to 101, what they remembered about giving birth decades earlier, their frank answers and the details they recalled astonished her. “Some of these (women), their children were now in their 70s, but they could tell me the details,” said Temple-Rhodes, an oral historian whose business, Cedar Story Services, is in the Dewitt-Seitz Building in Canal Park. Temple-Rhodes interviewed the women, and one of their husbands, in 2010-11 for phase one of what she calls the Duluth Birth Oral History Project. For full news story click here and download the transcripts here.
Superstorm Sandy
Since late December, Mary Anne Trasciatti, a Hofstra University professor has videotaped dozens of interviews with residents at Gentle Brew Coffee Roasters, on Long Beach's main drag; in a local community center; in a craft store; in flood-ravaged homes still marked with water lines. The videos—most of which are about 15 minutes long—will end up in a Hofstra archive, and may one day be available online, as part of an interactive map of Long Beach, she said. A Hofstra graduate student studying documentary filmmaking, Tiannah Bruce, is volunteering her help on the project and will also use the footage for a film. For full story click here.