International Oral History Association
(Published each 4 months)
Number 1, September
1998.
Starting Points
This is the first number of this new communications vehicle -to be issued each four months- which hopes to become a forum for communication among oral history enthusiasts throughout the world, as well as a place where those who make up IOHA (the
International Oral History Association) may keep readers up to date on activities, publications and news. We hereby implement one of the points agreed on at the recent congress which we organized in Brazil. Moreover, in this way, we hope not only to maintain more frequent and increasingly agile contacts with those who are already members of the Association, but also to attract new converts to the field of oral history. We welcome all types of information or comments which serve to enrich our newsletter.
The World of Words
10th International Congress on Oral history.
From the 14th to the 18th of June, the 10th International Congress on Oral history was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, taking as its key theme "Oral History: Challenges for the 21st Century", and, for the first time in a South American country, bringing together representatives from various nations, into 29 work groups, to make 200 presentations whose themes had to do, mainly, with the study of institutions, ethnic problems, genre,religion, work, social movements, memory and identity, violence, globalization and interdisciplinary matters.
The Board welcomes three new members: Verena Alberti from Brazil, Anne Ritchie from the United States and Janis Wilson from Australia. These people substitute Mary Marshall Clark from the United States, Ken Manungo from Zimbabwe and Birgitta Skarin from Sweden. The Board of Directors is, therefore, made up of Mercedes Vilanova (President), Marieta de Moraes Ferreira and Alistair Thomson (Vice-presidents), Alexander von Plato (Treasurer and Member of the Secretariat) and, in addition, Verena Alberti, Graciela de Garay, Albert Lichtblau, Arzu Ozturkmen, Alessandro Portelli, Ann Ritchie, Dora Schwartstein and Janis Wilton.
From Mouth to Page
At the last congress, it was acknowledged that communication among members ought to be made more efficient and timely. From now on, given the growing number of magazines specializing in oral history which are published by the various national associations and by other institutions, a decision was taken to limit the printing of Words and Silences to one bilingual issue per year. Alistair Thomson will be responsible for the English version, and Graciela de Garay for the Spanish one; its editorial policy will sanction the inclusion of national and regional reports, indexes of oral history magazines, the IOHA constitution, financial statements, minutes and special topics. The next edition will come out in February, 1999.
Transcript of Presentations at the XthCongress
Thanks to the efficient work of those who organized the Xth Oral History Congress, the full version of each of the presentations offered was published back-to-back with the latter, together with the summary submitted by each presenter. Entitled Xth International Oral History Conference, Proceedings, the work comprises three volumes, published by the Center for the Research and Documentation of the Contemporary History of Brazil, the Getulio Vargas Foundation, and the "Casa de Oswaldo Cruz" (House of Oswaldo Cruz). The presentations are published in the language in which they were given, whether this be Spanish, English or Portuguese, and, jointly, form a very valuable collection of materials which will enable researchers to form a reliable idea of the results gained from oral history, and of the directions the latter is taking as we draw near to the end of the XXth Century.
Patagonian Review of Oral History
It has become amatter of good sense to speak of the virtues of orality, or to praise the cross-disciplinary practices to which history, sociology or anthropology resort, and in which oral testimony plays a leading role. Paradoxically, few projects seem to follow a systematic body of policies regarding the recovery of memory via oral sources. The appearance of the second issue of the Revista Patagónica de Historia Oral (Patagonian Review of Oral History) constitutes a contribution in this area.The Center for the Divulgence and Dissemination of Oral Sources of Southern Patagonia (CIRFO)attempts to contribute towards the development of a set of cultural policies which gives voice to, and stimulates, the generation of knowledge in the vast field of orality, whether this be in the academic sphere, or in areas linked to practices which are foreign to university circles. The second issue of this publication, in which researchers and cultural workers from various parts of the region play a part, covers themes such as migratory processes, the dynamics of transformation of ethnic identities, remembrance as associated with the development of productive activities, the experience of struggle as witnessed in the development of trade unions, or readings of Patagonian myths.
New Magazine of the Brazilian Oral History Association
The community of Brazilian oral historians publishes Historia Oral (Oral History) each six months. Rather than preaching the virtues of oral history, the researchers grouped around the Brazilian Association of Oral History are engaged in a common discussion about the unsatisfactory nature of those results obtained using traditional procedures from other disciplines. The recorded word, and, along with it, the photographic image, have won prestige and acceptance as analytic instruments. Logically, this development occurs alongside the utilisation of other sources, such as music and a variety of utensils pertaining to the culture in question. These and other themes are dealt with in this magazine, which includes articles by Antonio Torres Montenegro, Marieta de Moraes Ferreira, Mercedes Villanova, Olgária Matos, Norberto Luiz Guarinello, Mathias Röhrig AssunHiao, Maria de Lourdes Mónaco Janotti, Angela Castro Gómez and Hebe Maria Matos, Alice Beatriz da Silva Gordo Lang and Jorge Ferreira.
Published by the Historical Institute of the City of Buenos Aires, and subtitled Revista de Historia Oral (Oral History Review), this includes a central dossier devoted to the 1970's, which relates the history of that period to the study of the present. In addition to being a work about the pedagogical applications of oral history, it includes the summary of Alistair Thomson’s presentation at The Third Encounter on Oral history, the run-down on those working with oral sources in Argentina, letters to the editor, publications news, and, finally, minutes of meetings.
Face to Face
The meeting of the Oral History Association will be held in Buffalo, New York, from the 15th to the 18th of October.This encounter, entitled "Crossing the Boundary, Crossing the Line; Oral History on the Border", will address different aspects of oral history, such as: the relationships which are established during the interview process; marginalness; oral history and the transmission of historical wisdom; the history of homosexuals and lesbians; perspectives on class, ethnicity, race and gender; interdisciplinary approaches; the ethical and legal boudaries of oral history.
Istambul to Host XIth Congress
The Association’s next congress will be held in Istambul, Turkey, in the year 2,000. The Conference Program Committee will consist of Arzu Ozturkmen, Marieta de Moraes Ferreira and Anne Ritchie. The general theme for the event will be "Crossroads of history: experience, remembrance and orality", with the secondary themes "Recallingthe XXth Century, imagining the XXI’st one"; "Virtual oral history: technology and the word"; "The millenium"; "Crossroads of continents"; "Remembering the conflicts"; "History experienced". Also, it was suggested that plenary panels be set up on: Indigenous rights and remembrance; Oral history and new information media; Oral history, dialogue and ethnicity; Community projects in oral history; The learning of oral history; Oral history in Turkey.
This IOHA NEWS section will be set aside for announcements and comments which the Association’s members may wish to make in relation to the reserch they are undertaking, to the material they have ready for publication, their bibliographical suggestions or discoveries, and any of their doubts, concerns or proposals which help us to further advance the frontiers of that fascinating world, oral history. We hope to get our readers’, reactions very soon, through the following e-mail addresses: hel@servidor.unam.mx and ahcbhafo@trivium.gh.ub.es
Edited by: Eugenia Meyer and Eva Salgado, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Printing and distribution supervised by Mercedes Vilanova, Montserrat Condomines and Lluis Ubeda. Printed by HAFO, Barcelona, Spain, 250 copies.