Welcome to the winter edition of the IOHA News. As you can see in the pages of this edition, oral history continues to be strong and vibrant throughout the world, In this issue we cover events that took place last autumn in Mexico, Brazil and the Untied States which include themes ranging from recovering memories, identity and music. In the upcoming monbths as well,  we cover there are several important national, regional and international conferences.  The University of Tesalia is hosting an event in Volos, Greece and the American Oral Assocation is hosting its annual conference in 2012 in Cleveland.  Of course, our organization is hosting it biannual conference in Buernos Aires in Septembe of this year.

We are also pleased to have included several book reviews. Miren Llona discusses Patricia Leavy’s, Oral History. Understanding Qualitative Research and Alejandro Falcro examines the collection of essays edited by Gerardo Necoechea Gracia and  Patricia Pensado Leglise, Voltear el mundo de cabeza. Historias de militancia de izquierda en América latina. [Turning the World Upside Down: Histories of Left-wing militancy in Latin America].

As always, the IOHA News relies on the contributions  to the newsletter from around the world. Whether it is news about a recent or upcoming conference, an update on an ongoing research project or a proposal for a book review we will be pleased to receive them. Your contributions are important for making this publication an important tool for sharing information by those who practice oral history around the world.

Miren Llona (Spanish text) | This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Christopher Paetzold (English text) | This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Co-editors, IOHA News

Dear colleagues,

I would like to use again this opportunity and space offered to me on the pages of our Newsletter to greet you and to give you my best wishes.

My role as the president of the IOHA (as with the Association’s Council)  has swung into its second half. The main task for all of us today and in the near future is to successfully prepare and manage the Seventeeth IOHA Conference in Buenos Aires in collaboration with the Argentine Oral History Association AHORA (Asociación de Historia Oral de la República Argentina).

Prior to the deadline, we received over 300 paper proposals in English and over 600 in Spanish and, at  the end of November, the evaluation committee reviewed and came to a decision about accepted papers.

Despite tiny communication problems we have managed, mainly thanks to the efforts of our Argentine colleagues, to make considerable progress in the organization of the congress. Our friends from Argentina deserve a big thank you from all the members of the IOHA Council. Also, thanks to Liliana Barela’s and Adriana Echezuri’s endeavors, the Argentine consulates are doing good job in promoting the event.

The IOHA’s journal Words & Silences has gone online and the last year’s issue (vol. 5, n. 2, November 2010) is already downloadable from the site. I suppose that this year’s issue will appear online soon, too. My congratulations to our colleagues Juan Jose Gutiérrez and Helen Klaebe for their outstanding work!

Speaking of the website of our Association, this important communication platform is going through substantial changes, too. We began a process of renovating and updating the current website in order for our Association’s online presence to become more dynamic and “alive”. IOHA has also created a Facebook page which has had considerable success – articles and other links are regularly added and there are about 100 daily visitors. Chris Paetzold, whom I want to thank, has made major part of this fruitful work.

Good news also from the IOHA’s scholarship fund. A number of scholarships for oral historians and scholars from least economically developed countries will be available again next year.

Inviting you to contribute with oral history news from your part of the World to our Newsletter, I remain, yours sincerely

Miroslav Vaněk

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
IOHA President