International Oral History Association(published twice a year)
Volume 13:2, 2005
From the Editors
In this second newsletter of 2005 we wanted to continue extending the IOHA's profile as a multicultural association and forum for dialogue between different theoretical and practical approaches to oral history on an international level.
To achieve this goal, this newsletter has given room to research projects-both those of IOHA members and non-members alike-from diverse academic disciplines and a variety of countries from India to Mexico and passing through Europe, the Americas and Australia along the way.
While going about this task, we have also been working towards achieving a higher level of bilingualism in our newsletter, gathering a larger number of articles from across Latin America and from Spain.
Finally, we wish to express from these virtual pages our gratitude for the tremendous effort that the council of the IOHA and the organizing committee from Australia has put forth in putting together the International Conference of the IOHA being held in Sydney in 2006. We encourage all of our readers to post the conference announcement, which celebrates the tenth anniversary of our International Oral History Association. And please continue to send us reports of your own projects and meetings.
Pilar Domínguez (Spanish text)- pdprats@dch.ulpgc.es
Don Ritchie (English text) - oralhistorians@comcast.net
Co-editors, IOHA News
From the President
I had the great fortune in March to make a site visit to Sydney (no, IOHA didn't fund it!), one of the most beautiful cities in the world, on a par with Rio de Janeiro and San Francisco!
[The famous Sydney Opera House and musicians on the Circular Quay]
Over coffee at the State Library of New South Wales, an impressive colonial/modern venue in downtown Sydney, I met with Paula Hamilton, Janis Wilton and Rosie Block, our Australian conference coordinators, to review conferencing plans and get my work assignments!
[IOHA President Rina Benmayor (second from the left) and Conference organizers Paula Hamilton,
Janis Wilton, and Rosie Block, meeting in Sydney, March 2005]
The major pieces of the conference (the call for papers, venues, translation services, technology services, registration and accommodations) were already in place! We approved the beautiful conference logo, and I then visited the conference venue itself - a spacious, comfortable, and technologically equipped building of the School of Design at the University of Technology, Sydney. Yes, this time the conference will be in ONE building! It won't be palatial Rome, but no chance of getting lost! A wide range of hotel/hostel/dorm accommodations will be available near the University and throughout the city. Sydney is very easy to navigate, with excellent bus and metro services.
The Call for Papers has been extended until July 31, so there's still time to submit a proposal! Spread the word!
[Sunset at Heron Island along the Great Barrier Reef]
The 2006 conference will also mark the 10th Anniversary of IOHA as a formal association. We are working to bring together some of the pioneers of IOHA to reflect on future directions of oral history as a global field. At Sydney, we will also introduce two new components, which we hope will become regular practice in the future. Some of our world-renown experts will be offering Master classes in oral history methodology: covering interviewing, archival practices, and interpretation. These workshops will take place at the State Library, one day before the Conference opening, with limited enrollment at a modest fee. During the conference, spaces in the program will be marked for Special Interest Groups to convene and share work in poster sessions or informally, across geographic and linguistic divides. These are in response to suggestions from archivists and others at the Rome meeting.
Speaking of Rome, I am happy to report that proceeds from the Rome meeting have, in part, enabled the formation of an Italian Oral History Association! Bravo, Sandro! With this, IOHA is fulfilling one of its principal goals - to network oral historians and stimulate the formation of national/regional associations in parts of the world where such organizations did not previously exist. We did it in South Africa, and we did it in Rome! Our hope is that the conference location in Sydney will enable oral historians from India, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, as well as Japan (where there is a young oral history association) to network and organize.
Behind the scenes, Council has been busy fundraising for scholarships for Sydney, particularly for scholars from poorer, developing countries and from places under-represented in IOHA. The Scholarship Application and Criteria are posted on the Homepage. The deadline is August 31. Also on the homepage is a Contribution Appeal to membership - both institutional and individual. Your contributions will go to directly defraying the costs of travel and accommodations for scholars and practitioners who could not otherwise participate. While those with Euros and U.S. dollars have an advantage in Australia, a large number of our members come from countries with unstable currencies. The ability to present their work in Sydney may well depend on your generosity as colleagues.
I urge you to contribute even a small amount to the Scholarship fund (see Appeal on the IOHA Homepage: www.ioha.fgv.br)! Our target is to raise $25,000! We are one fourth of the way there! Please contribute!
Other projects Council is tackling include the redesign of our Homepage and website, to include voice, images, interactivity and scholarship; drafting By-Laws; and enhancing our bilingual communications at the biennial conferences. To this effect, all conference participants in Sydney are being asked to provide a one or two-page summary of their paper in the other official language (English or Spanish). These summaries will be compiled as a booklet and included in each registration packet. For those unable to find a professional translator or native speaker, the Conference website has information on a professional translator (English and Spanish) who can help you for a very modest fee.
While it may seem a long time away, Council is also looking forward to 2008 and is eager to receive proposals for the XVth International Conference. Since 1996, IOHA has met in Sweden, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Italy, and soon Australia. I encourage those who have the desire and the means to host the 2008 IOHA conference, to contact me.
The Council and the Conference organizers have not been idle! We look forward to your proposals, to a magnificent Sydney conference, and to moving IOHA into its second decade with a flourish!
Rina Benmayor
IOHA President
Rina_Benmayor@csumb.edu
The World of Words
Future Conferences and Meetings
Dancing with Memory: Oral History and its Audiences, 12-16 July, 2006, Sydney, Australia
The aim of the 14th International Oral History Conference is to attract participants from throughout the world who wish to share their ideas and experiences in applying oral history in a variety of different ways: in museums, films, heritage studies, land rights claims, politics, archives, academic studies, community projects and much more. We want the rooms of the main venue at the University of Technology in Sydney to reverberate with the sounds of passion, excitement and innovation as oral historians demonstrate the power of sharing memories. We want oral historians to showcase their achievements and challenges, and to present performances and exhibitions as well as papers to international audiences of fellow practitioners. We want the City of Sydney to be stimulated by the talk of so many oral historians who work at the cutting edge of their sub-discipline.
The Conference is being organized locally with the assistance of the Oral History Association of Australia (OHAA), University of Technology Sydney (UTS), State Library of NSW, and University of New England. The main venue for the conference will be the University of Technology Sydney. Visit http://www.uts.edu.au/about/tour/city.html for a map of the location, views of the campus and its locality.
The following websites provide a taste of what Sydney, New South Wales and Australia Tourism Australia: http://www.tourism.australia.com/; Tourism NSW: http://www.sydneyaustralia.com/ (a multilingual site); City of Sydney: http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/.
On the Tuesday before the conference, there will be workshops and master classes led by internationally recognized oral historians. The conference organizers encourage all oral historians to submit proposals for papers, panels, and performances. Send proposals to: Email: IOHA@uts.edu.au. Mail: Paula Hamilton, Faculty of Humanities, University of Technology Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, The full Call for Papers is available on the IOHA website. The extended deadline for proposals is 31 July 2005.
SCHOLARSHIPS: The IOHA has a Scholarships Fund to provide financial assistance to attend the conference. Guidelines are available on the IOHA website (http://www.ioha.fgv.br). To be eligible for a scholarship you must have a paper or other proposal accepted for the program.
Janis Wilton, Rosie Block and Paula Hamilton, Local Organizing Committee
ORAL AND VISUAL SOURCES: HISTORIC RESEARCH AND PEDAGOGIC RENEWAL, September 7-9, 2005, IruZa/Pamplona, Spain
A history conference will be held by the Institute of Economic and Social History Gerónimo de Uztariz, the Icaria Federation (Fedicaria), the Seminar of Oral Sources (Complutence University), and the Geography and History Department (Public University of Navarra), in IruZa/Pamplona, Spain, September 7-9, 2005. The conference will encourage a dialogue within a double intersection: that of historic research with critic pedagogy, and that of the use of oral and visual sources, both linked with the History and Oral Sources Conferences regularly celebrated in Ávila since 1981.
For Further Information Contact:
Santiago Leoné: santileone@yahoo.es or
Gemma Piérola: gemma.pierola@unavarra.es
ARCHIVES SPEAK: WHO LISTENS? IASA Conference, September 11-15, 2005, Barcelona, Spain
Digital technology and the increasing demand for audiovisual material in support of learning, structured or personalized, have encouraged archives to increase their promotional activities and raise their public profile accordingly. But how much do we know about our audiences, their expectations and intentions? What are the obligations, legal and moral, particularly with respect to the creators of the content we collect, which constrain our interactions with these audiences? What is the impact on the traditional set of skills expected of an audiovisual archivist?
For further information contact:
Shubha Chaudhuri: shubha@ernet.in or shubhac@yahoo.com
CAN ORAL HISTORY MAKE OBJECTS SPEAK? October 18-21, 2005, Nafplion, Greece
The ICOM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Ethnography will hold an international conference on the theme: Can Oral History Make Objects Speak? in Nafplion, Greece, October 18-21, 2005. The conference is collaborative between the Hellenic National Committee of ICOM, the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, and ICOM/ICME, the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Ethnography.
Museums are increasingly utilizing oral history as a tool in research, documentation, exhibitions and education, as well as a way of empowering people and contextualizing objects. The 2005 ICME conference will deal with ideology, methodology, and practice of oral history in museums. Presentations will deal with integrating oral history in exhibitions; audience research and visitor impact; source communities; education; museum, library, and archive collaboration; ethical aspects of oral traditions; and heritage institutions. The conference will be followed by a two-day post-conference tour of the Peloponnesus on October 22-23.
Further details and registration forms are available on the ICME web site:
http://icme.icom.museum
Daniel Winfree Papuga, president@icme.icom.museum
VOICES OF DISSENT, VOICES OF HOPE: November 2-6, 2005, Oral History Association Annual Meeting, Providence, Rhode Island, US
The Oral History Association will hold its 2005 annual meeting November 2-6 at the Providence Marriott, Providence, Rhode Island. In keeping with the historic role of the city of Providence in welcoming religious dissenters, the meeting will focus special attention on oral history work with persons who have sought freedom of expression, freedom from coercion, and freedom of conscience. Presentations will deal with religious freedom and how people have resisted oppression based on religious identity; or have dissented from the coercive intentions of powerful figures and institutions, religious and secular. Stories of political protestors, labor organizers, and reformers advocating various causes will also be an important part of the meeting.
For further information contact:
Madelyn Campbell, oha@dickinson.edu
Speaking Memory: Oral History, Oral Culture and Italians in America: American Italian Historical Association, November 3-6, 2005, Los Angeles, California, US
This conference will focus on research in the fields of oral history, local history, ethnography, and oral tradition, as they pertain to Italians in America. As plenary speaker, Alessandro Portelli of the UniversitBB La Sapienza, Rome, will address the issue: "What Makes Oral History Different?" The conference will also feature an oral history research workshop by the UCLA Oral History Program; sound and visual archives presentation by the Italian Oral History Institute and the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archives; receptions, concerts, exhibitions, traditional Italian frame drum and dance workshops; and historic and cultural tours of Italian Los Angeles.
For more information see http://www.iohi.org/NEW/index.html.
NARRATING MEMORY: Oral History and Life Stories Network, Sixth European Social Science History Conference, 22-25 March 2006, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The biannual European Social Science History Conference will be held in Amsterdam in 2006. Since 1998, the Oral History and Life Stories Network has met at each conference, and interest in it has been steadily rising. Some seventy participants gathered at the most recent network sessions. With the International Oral History Association conference often meeting outside Europe, the Network has become a regular international forum for European oral history and life story researchers.
For further information contact Nanci Adler (N.Adler@niod.nl) and Daniela Koleva (daniela@sclg.uni-sofia.bg).
Face to Face
Conference and Association reports
MALAYSIA
Seminar on Preservation and Dissemination of Oral History as National Heritage
On 7-9 April 2005, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, about 500 delegates attended the Seminar on Preservation and Dissemination of Oral History as National Heritage, organized by the National Archives of Malaysia, and the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage Malaysia, in collaboration with the Southeast Asian Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (SARBICA). It aimed to raise consciousness among SARBICA member countries of the need to preserve oral documentation as a rich source of historical heritage, to provide an opportunity for professional exchange of ideas and experiences, to enhance professionalism of the region's practitioners, and focus the interest of scholars and researchers on oral history resources in research and curriculum development.
After a warmly welcoming introduction from the Director-General of the National Archives of Malaysia, Datuk Hajah Rahani Jamil, proceedings were opened with an erudite, insightful and most supportive keynote address from the Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Malaysia, Y. B. Datuk Seri Utama Dr. Rais Yatim. The first of several themes then presented was on approaches to oral history. From a theoretical standpoint, Professor Dato' Syed Hussein Alatas of Malaysia spoke on notions of objectivity in oral history. Then, combining both appreciation and practice issues, Mr Azemi Aziz described the approach and achievements of the National Archives of Malaysia: there are real challenges for countries like Malaysia as maintenance of cultural heritage through traditional oral transmission phases out in the wake of development into the new world of technology and more widespread literacy and education.
On the theme of documentation of oral history, a lively and inspiring panel session followed, on smart partnerships in oral history, including representatives from Brunei Darussalam, India, Malaysia and Singapore, chaired by Prof. Sharom Amat (Malaysia). Francis Good of the Oral History Association of Australia then described and discussed the aims, structure and activities of oral history associations in the USA, UK and Australia, and the International Oral History Association, and their role in the support and development of the enterprise.
Day two saw a fascinating series of widely contrasting SARBICA member country reports from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. On the theme of institutional custody, and care of recordings and transcripts, Dr Anuridh Deshpande reported on their description and arrangement at, and oral history work at the Centre for Contemporary Studies at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi, India, within the context of the generally neglected state of historical research in his country.
Distinguished scholar and author Kwa Chong Guan, a former Director of the Oral History Centre, Singapore, then gave a particularly illuminating address on oral history in the making of our memories and heritage, including the challenging observation: "The interview as an archival function may increasingly be less about the production of a transcript of an interview, but more about the process of facilitating the interviewee to reconfigure memories linking the past to the present, and networking reconfigured memories with other memories of the 'virtual community'."
Day three presented two papers on the theme of oral history in the context of education and exploitation: Dr Nadzan Haron of Malaysia spoke on designing and conducting an academic subject for higher education students; and Dr Haji Muhammad described some of the dissemination activities and products of the National Archives of Brunei Darussalam that have achieved a wide popularity among students and the general public in his country.
Finally, a plenary session produced fifteen inspiring resolutions under headings of interpretation, scope, training, dissemination, collaboration and challenges. Further details can be obtained from the Director-General, Arkib Negara Malaysia, Jalan Duta, 50568 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Francis Good
francisgood@mail2me.com.au
SPAIN
Meetings of the Ethnographic Archives and Social Construction of Memory
On the 8th and 9th of April, 2005, the Meetings of Ethnographic Archives and Social Construction of Memory were celebrated in Madrid at the Spanish Railroads Foundation venue (FF), organized by the Spain and America Anthropology Department of the Superior Council for Scientific Investigations (CSIC) and the Historical Railway Archive (FFE).
The coordinator for Humanities and Social Sciences of the CSIC, Felipe Criado, presented the Archive of Grief project, whose purpose is to document, organize, analyze and preserve the objects and messages that the citizens have deposited on the railway stations affected by the 11th of March attacks in Madrid. Raising the need for a rigorous response from the academic world to the social demand of what has been called "memorialization" of the attacks, the project's intention is to contribute to the construction of memory by analyzing the mourning manifestations that society, through drawings, letters, poems, photographs, electronic messages and a wide typology of objects deposited in improvised sanctuaries in the stations of Madrid. It is expected that this ethnographic archive will generate anthropological investigations of violence, citizen space, group expressions, rituals of grief, and popular religion.
Two initial sessions dealt with the ethnographic archives in Spain, and the parallel experience in the United States of creating ethnographic archives on the September 11 attacks and the war of Vietnam. On the first matter Montserrat Iniesta, from the " Museo del Vi", outlined a general perspective of the situation of the Spanish ethnographic archives, and Mario Cotterau presented the recovery and computerization process of the CSIC archives, dealing with personal and scientific archives. The participation of Guha Shankar and Margaret Kruesi from the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress showed the numerous resources of information gathered in multi-format collections including songs, oral testimonies, music and popular traditions preserved in the Library of Congress.
Three panels completed the Meetings. The first discussed projects linked to the recovery of memory and the Spanish civil war, giving special attention to the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory (ARMH) and to the project of the audio-visual archive "Active Democratic Memory" (MEDEA). A second panel addressed the Railway Historical Archive (AHF) and its collection of oral sources, "The voice of the train." The contribution of the AHF members was aided by the experience of oral source researcher Pilar Folguera, who reviewed the research works carried out by a group of historians together with RENFE workers. Archive specialist Carmen Sierra analyzed the importance of relying on archives of oral sources for contemporary history, offering also suggestions and guidelines for the production of future projects of oral history that shall be incorporated into the "Archive of Grief."
The last panel addressed the problems that the research team of the CSIC had faced in the creation of the "Archive of Grief," dealing with methodological aspects in the creation of ethnographic archives, the ethnographic value of the materials, the primary sources that are generated while conducting an investigation based on field works (audio and video tapes, photographs, objects, field notes, and so on), and the way they will allow society a future development of research projects on innovative lines of the anthropology of violence and ritual of grief. At the conclusion, there was a general evaluation on the methodological problems ethnographic archives have, the interesting and necessary interdisciplinary collaboration, and the importance of oral sources as working axis for future meetings on these matters.
Raquel Letón
rleton@ffe.es
From Page to Mouth
New Projects
CANADA
Celebrating Our Diversity: Canada's First Oral History Museum Launched
In October 2004, the Multicultural History Society in Toronto, Canada, opened Canada's first Oral History Museum (OHM). A hands-on interactive gallery combining the spoken word with photographs, multi-media and computer simulation, the Oral History Museum is built around the themes of community-building and immigrant adaptation in twentieth century Toronto (1945-1995).
The Museum brings to life the sounds and stories of the Society's extensive oral history collection (one of the largest in North America, this collection contains over 9,000 hours of recorded interviews from members of 60 ethnic groups now residing in Canada). Four "Imagination Stations" house multimedia presentations on various themes, including community building, social justice and living traditions, together with life stories of individual immigrants to Toronto. Visitors can walk in the footsteps of Chinese-born Jean Lumb, Fortunato Rao of Italy, and Selwyn (Nip) Davis of Trinidad by listening to their stories and asking questions about the decisions that shaped their lives.
Under the leadership of MHSO Chief Executive Officer Dora Nipp, the Oral History Museum was awarded a 2004 Rolex Award for Enterprise in Cultural Heritage for its pioneering work encouraging tolerance and cultural appreciation among Toronto's diverse communities. Plans for the continued development of the Museum include conversion of the Society's entire audiotape collection into digital format, in order to make them more accessible to visitors, researchers and students. Events such as storytelling, poetry readings and musical presentations will complement regular programming.
The Oral History Museum is located in the heart of downtown Toronto, just south of the Royal Ontario Museum within the Multicultural History Centre at 43 Queen's Park Crescent East. For general information and admission rates, see our website at www.mhso.ca. To book a group visit, please contact: Dr. Lillian Petroff, Education Coordinator, at 416.979.2973.
The Multicultural History Society is a not-for-profit organization located in the Multicultural History Centre, a converted mansion on the University of Toronto campus. The Society was founded in 1976 by Dr. Robert F. Harney and his colleagues, in recognition of the importance of recording the stories and ways of "ordinary" people and weaving them into the cultural fabric of Ontario and Canada.
Jennifer Bonnell
Oral History Museum
CUBA/SPAIN
The Caribbean Galicia: Migratory Journeys and Work Insertion. Between History and Memory, 1899-1959
During the first half of the twentieth century, Galicia was the Spanish region from which the greater number of emigrants departed to America. Cuba was their main destiny until 1930. Between 1899 and 1960 about 378,000 Galicians travelled to Cuba, 45 percent of the Spanish emigration to the island. Many of them eventually returned to their natal region, but many others established themselves there definitively until the revolutionary changes in 1959 pushed them into exile in Unites States or Spain. Those who shared in the revolutionary movement, and those who were unable to leave Cuba, witnessed the disappearance of their ethnic organizations, their signs of identity, and the culture that they and their ancestors had re-created, and even invented in the Great Antille. By the end of the twentieth century, the Galicians from Cuba had totally integrated into the Cuban socialist society, maintaining only the distant memory of their working and economic advantages in different economic sectors and niches, of the strength of their ethnic institutions, of the efficiency of their associations, and especially of their celebrations of cultural events, their lounge parties and their rural pilgrimages.
Signs of this important community remain only in the degraded buildings of their dead regional associations, and in the memory of the surviving elders. The revolutionary cyclone destroyed the numerous documents and publications that this community had gathered during a century in the island.
In 1997, in the middle of an economic crisis, the euphemistic special period, I set out to reconstruct the history of this ignored and disappeared group, starting field research that would last until 2004. During these seven years I gathered 145 life stories around the island and searched carefully for the traces of the Galician colony in almost all its archives, newspaper libraries and large libraries.
The main conclusions of this research have been the following: 1) Many factors contributed to migratory decisions, such as economic issues, the emulation of other groups, and especially, the existence of active migratory chains and nets that facilitated the traffic of immigrants. 2) The Galician emigration to Cuba was characterized by the family self-financing rather than an individual economic strategy. 3) The mechanism that enabled the Galician immigrants to find work were the migratory chains and the social nets of family neighborhood and community. 4) Galicians, in spite of constituting the largest Spanish regional group established in the island, did not manage to reach an economic situation as high as that of Catalans, Asturians, Cantabrians and Basques. Nor did they achieve an upwardly working mobility as the others did because of their higher individualism, their low instruction grade, their lower work training and their weaker insertion in the commercial and industrial areas. 5) Nevertheless, they managed to construct the most important and numerous cultural associations on the island. This associative process was possible thanks to an active social leadership, whose community action made possible the economic and political patronage necessary to reach their aspirations. 6) Parallel to this ethnic associative process, a political mobilization developed, which mirrored the regional movements of their natal Galicia. 7) The regionalist mobilization and the association action of the Galicians of Cuba managed to create a well-defined ethnic community that could support their signs of national identity without making them an impassable barrier to conformity within the Cuban society, where they had almost totally integrated at the time of the Revolution of 1959. The Revolution's socialist interventions managed to eliminate not only their properties and private business, but also their charitable, cultural, educational and political associations, their prolific ethnic press, and other signs of identity. They were not capable of erasing the recollection of all this in the memory of the survivors.
Jose Antonio Vidal
josenavidal@hotmail.com
ESTONIA
Oral History Research in the Nordic-Baltic Area -WebCT
During the last few years, ethnologists, folklorists and historians from the Baltic and Nordic countries interested in oral history research have discussed the idea of establishing a network of some kind and finding new ways for cooperation. Now this has been made possible by researchers from the University of Tartu in Estonia, who in November 2004 established The Oral History Research in the Nordic-Baltic area-WebCT: http://webct.e-uni.ee/public/TUOHaLHRitNBA/index.html
The Oral History Research in the Nordic-Baltic area -WebCT is an online environment, which provides a forum to present oral history studies and current happenings, to discuss and debate on theoretical and methodological issues, to create and develop co-operation etc. Though the WebCT was established by ethnologists and folklorists, it is open for all researchers interested in oral history research.
The Oral History Research in the Nordic-Baltic area -WebCT is not a public site, but anyone interested may register by contacting Lehti Pilt, who will give you an ID and password. If you have any questions, please contact associate professor Tiiu Jaago or researcher Anne Heimo. Registration: Lehti Pilt: e-mail: lehti.pilt@ut.ee. Open University, University of Tartu, Estonia. Further information: Tiiu Jaago: e-mail: tiiu.jaago@ut.ee. Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore, University of Tartu, Estonia (http://haldjas.folklore.ee/UTfolkl/eng/index.html)
Anne Heimo, School of Cultural Research, anheimo@utu.fi
University of Turku, Finland (http://www.hum.utu.fi/folk/english.html)
GERMANY/INDIA
Oral History on India's Independence Movement
Millions of Indians participated in the struggle for independence from the British Empire who witnessed and were part of the large nonviolent movement, led by Mahatma Gandhi in the first half of the 20th century. Now, for the first time, a concentrated effort is made to video-record reminiscences of nonviolent fighters for India's freedom. Systematically, GandhiServe Foundation, in cooperation with its sister organization, GandhiServe India Trust, Mumbai/India, identifies these veterans and talks to them about various aspects of the struggle, which was the first large campaign in history based on truth and nonviolence.
The project aims to interview about a thousand freedom fighters over a period of five years. It will not be focussed on Gandhians only, but all people who are recognised freedom fighters by the Indian Government as well as non-recognised freedom fighters. As these talks will reveal many untold stories and facts about Mahatma Gandhi and the movement, the results of this project will be of academic interest for historians, political and social scientists as well as for those people interested in India's freedom movement. The involvement of the media, universities and research institutions in this project would be appreciated as it would help raising the overall quality of the project. Interested institutions can cooperate on various levels: technical, personal and financial. The annual results, a minimum of one hundred interviews of one to two hours each, will be made available to individuals and institutions that support the project. They can use the material for research and educational purposes. Technical assistance can be given by providing high quality video and audio recording equipment to GandhiServe Foundation. Students and researchers of supporting institutions will be given an opportunity to meet freedom fighters. They would also be assisted in their thesis on this subject by GandhiServe Foundation. The larger the input and cooperation of the associates, the faster and better are the results that can be expected. It is to be considered that the majority of freedom fighters are in their late seventies, eighties or nineties. This is really the last chance to talk to eyewitnesses of India's independence movement and coworkers of Mahatma Gandhi. Moreover. It is the first time such conversations will be conducted in a systematic manner, and the first attempt ever to make them video-recorded!
So far about 2,500 addresses of freedom fighters alive have been collected in two Indian states (Maharashtra and Gujarat). It can be estimated that twenty thousand addresses in total will be collected, out of which it might be possible to interview a thousand individuals. The video-recordings have begun in March 2005 interviewing freedom fighters in Mumbai who mainly participated in the Quit India! movement in 1942. On this webpage the interviews, information about interviewees and news about the project are uploaded:
http://www.gandhiserve.org/activities/research/oral_history.html
The conversations are recorded on mini-dv tapes (Panasonic, 60 min.) using a Panasonic NV-GS 400 digital camcorder (3 CCD chips) and two Sennheiser sound systems EW 112-P G2 with two mikes Sennheiser MKE 40-EW.
Contact: Peter Rühe, Chairperson, GandhiServe Foundation, Rathausstrasse 51a, 12105 Berlin, Germany
Tel: +49 (0)30 70206374 / 705 40 54
Fax: +49 (0)30 70206373 / 705 40 54
Email: mail@gandhimail.org
http://www.gandhiserve.org
SWEDEN
Grounding Globalization: The everyday life of Volvo workers in Europe, Latin America and Africa.
Researchers: Nora Räthzel (Umeå University, Sociology), Irene Molina (Uppsala University, Cultural Geography), Diana Mulinari (Lund University, Sociology), Paula Mählck (Mälardalen University, Sociology), Aina Tollefsen-Altamirano (Umeå University, Cultural Geography).
We have received a research grant from the Swedish research council to study industrial workers in four continents. A main method of our research will be to collect life stories from workers, engineers, technicians, and managers--people working in all possible areas of a Volvo plant. Our special points of interest are: the relationship between working life and domestic life; political involvements; the organization of care; the acquirement and production of knowledge; and experiences of migration between countries and also between rural and urban areas. We want to know how these relationships changed over time and how people have experiences change (or may have experienced no great changes) in the course of their life.
The introduction to our grant application explained our theoretical background and guiding questions: "In America rationalization has determined the need to elaborate a new type of man suited to the new type of work and productive process", wrote Antonio Gramsci 1927. The notion of the 'new type of man' implied that working processes engage the entire personality. Thus, individuals have to transform their ways of living, that is, the relationship between working time and leisure time, between body and mind, forms of communication, ways of experiencing society and of intervening into it. Gender relations and family forms have to change in order for individuals not only cope with, but to thrive within the new forms of production. 'Fordism' was the concept coined by Gramsci to describe the efforts undertaken by Ford to control and shape not only the way in which his workers worked but also the ways in which they led their private lives. Sexual relations, family life, and consumption had to be shaped in a way that made workers fit for a Taylorized work process. While Weber analyzed Protestantism as the religious culture producing the characters able to develop the Capitalist mode of production, Gramsci saw 'Puritanism' as a means to shape qualified craftsmen into Taylorist workers. "The employee who goes to work after a night of excess is no good for his work. The exaltation of passion cannot be reconciled with the timed movements of productive motions connected with the most perfected automatism."
Does the new type of production dominant in today's global information economy require a new kind of person? It has been argued that late modernism or postmodernism augments individualization, that the "mode of experiencing" has changed, engendering a culture of "virtual reality." Flexibility, lifelong learning, flat hierarchies, and an increase of social competence have been diagnosed as the results of new working processes. New work organization has been seen to favor women's inclusion into the labor process. The aim of this project is to investigate the changing ways of life by applying a biographical perspective from below. We want to look at the ways in which workers experience and make sense of their lives in the context of a global working place. Do they experience any changes in their lives and how do they describe and define them? How do they experience the workplace, the relationship between working life and domestic life, gender and ethnic relations? How do they experience spatial relations, their local neighborhoods in relation to other places, which they know through direct experience or through forms of representation? Do they intervene into their living conditions through traditional political parties, trade unions, new social movements, neighborhood organizations, or through individualized forms of adaptation or resistance? What role does migration within and across country boundaries play?
In order to understand these experiences as simultaneously global and local, we need to study a case that already encompasses relationships between differently positioned workers and a global and local presence. A transnational company fulfils these requirements. It provides us with one local/global case, instead of having to connect individual local case studies with each other. For three reasons deriving from the economic, political and cultural context within which we wish to situate our analysis, we have selected Volvo (group and car corporation) as our research subject:
- Car production is the metaphor for mass production and has provided the name for its production regime, Fordism. Consequently, it provides one of the concepts theorizing its demise: Post-Fordism. We want to know how the icon of Fordist production has changed into Post-Fordist times. Interestingly, Volvo's car production, once pioneering the transition from Taylorist to group work has been sold to Ford. A history of Volvo will give us insight into the change of production regimes.
- Though Volvo has long been a transnational company (being multinational now), it is rooted in national representations. The values it promotes--reliability, safety, environmental responsibility--are associated with Sweden in general. Looking at how workers make sense of these company values, we will investigate cultural changes in a national/global context.
- The new production is often described as immaterial work, information, fluids, etc. The Volvo production of cars, trucks, and buses seems distant from such accounts. However, these vehicles are still with us and will continue to be so. Therefore, it seems important for us to diverge from the usual focus on new types of production (IT sites or service sector) in order to understand how "old" productions change when they are based on new information technologies. We want to understand the impact of technological change on work content, work organization and cooperation.
The plants we have chosen for our investigation are the Volvo factories in Sweden, Botswana, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. We would be grateful for any information or connection to people who could help us with our research, especially those who work or have worked in Volvo plants in our countries of investigation.
Nora Räthzel, nora.rathzel@soc.umu.se
SPAIN
Collection of oral sources in the libraries of Barcelona
Libraries have always been access centers to information in any format and on any theme. Today, the role they play in the information society is clearly changing, turning them into meeting points, as well as places of cultural interchange and creation. Users' needs are changing and libraries must adapt to them by modifying or extending the classic services they usually offer. Libraries are more and more becoming cultural entities of proximity, and they must be involved in a very active way in the "beat of the territory." This requires greater neighborhood involvement, which in turn involves one of the most characteristic sections of all libraries: the local collection. In this context of information research regarding the territory, different needs appeared in four libraries of Barcelona that could be translated into a common project: the collection of oral sources.
The project arose from the needs of diverse libraries in Barcelona to deal with users' demands regarding local collection. These collections include all the published works and edited material about the history of the neighborhood where the library is located. Libraries faced the following issues: a lack of published works about the history of the neighborhood, users who donated their memories in writing, and the wish of others to express their vision of the neighborhood.
This initiative arose from different libraries in Barcelona: El Carmel-Juan Marsé Library; Collserola-Josep Miracle Library; Poblesec-Francesc Boix Library; and in a later stage the Montbau-Albert Pérez Baró Library. In addition, in this project encouraged by the Consorci de Biblioteques de Barcelona there has been a collaboration by the Arxiu Histbric de la Ciutat de Barcelona and the Historic Archives from each district involved.
Basically, the goals we proposed for this project were to open new avenues of collaboration between organizations in the city, complete the local collection by producing useful documentation on local history. http://www.xtec.es/recursos/socials/historaula/ http://www.xtec.es/iesffg/leandre_colomer.htm
pgomez1@pie.xtec.es
Pilar Gómez,
Historaula Coordinator
UNITED STATES
Italian-American Web Site
The Italian Oral History Institute is proud to announce the inauguration of: Italian Los Angeles: http://www.ItalianLosAngeles.org The Italian Resource Guide to Greater Los Angeles (Please Visit and Publicize this Link!)
The Italian Oral History Institute (P.O. Box 241553, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1553) is a non-profit, community-based research institution. Its mission is to collect, preserve, and disseminate materials and information relating to the culture and history of Italians in California. It especially focuses on Italian oral, folk, and regional cultures and on the oral history of Italian immigrants. The IOHI produces multimedia festivals, conferences, and a variety of public programs to further its mission. Visit: http://www.iohi.org for more information.
Luisa Del Giudice, IOHI
luisadg@humnet.ucla.edu
Life in the Calumet Region: A History of Steel Shavings Magazine
The Internet and digital revolutions have opened up countless possibilities for disseminating oral testimony. Back in the twentieth century, however, publishing Steel Shavings magazine seemed the most palatable way of making available the fruits of oral history research to students, families, community residents, and scholars interested in Northwest Indiana's rich cultural heritage. The name Steel Shavings underscored the enormous local impact of area steel mills. Steel industry jobs had originally lured most settlers to Northwest Indiana. The diminution of the steel industry's influence due to automation has been quite dramatic since the magazine's debut in 1975. Since then, the publication has undergone numerous transformations but has consistently showcased oral history research with special emphasis on the social history of the family. Tapes and transcripts of published interviews are housed in IUN's Calumet Regional Archives (CRA). The CRA website is http://www.iun.edu/~cra/
Throughout the life of Steel Shavings, oral history has been vital to its primary mission, which has been to capture as much as possible the varied aspects of Northwest Indiana's social history. Given its emphasis on contemporary history, I was heartened by Alessandro Portelli's keynote remarks at the 2004 International Oral History conference in Rome when he exhorted comrades to give closer attention to the very recent past as a way of validating the life experiences of young people. After three decades I have come to regard the magazine as my most important service to Clio, the muse of history. The most innovative issues have taken a "from the bottom up" perspective and have combined social and institutional history in analyzing the development over time of labor unions, universities, city administrations, protest groups, and other organizations. To order back issues, send an email to jblane@iun.edu.
[James Lane at the Rome IOHA meeting, with other participants in the Gender Roles session: Angelita Reyes, Tuzel Bayrakceken, Maria Guadarrama, Mirta Lobato, and Patricia Sampaoli de Bonacci. Lane's paper was entitled "The Professor Wore a Cowboy Hat (And Nothing Else): Ethical Issues in Handling Matters of Sex in Institutional Oral Histories: Indiana University Northwest as a Case Study."]
Steel Shavings is approximately 80 percent self-sustaining with the balance emanating from Indiana University Northwest, which uses the magazine in various promotions. Computer programs have simplified production, enabling an expansion of the magazine's size with only modest price increases. Following is a synopsis of the magazine's life span.
Families of the Calumet Region, volumes 1-9
- 1. Selections from Gary's History (1975): This volume was intended as a community study with emphasis on ethnic families, urban institutions, and neighborhood support groups.
- 2. Families of the Calumet Region (1976): Articles document migration experiences from Europe, Latin America, and the American South to the industrial cities of Gary and East Chicago.
- 3. Families of the Calumet Region during the 1930s (1977): Oral histories of Depression-era survival strategies, when ethnic bonds often made the difference in keeping families intact.
- 4. Cruisin' the Region in the Fifties (1978): Respondents describe events of personal importance, including the 1955 Standard Oil Refinery Explosion and the 1959 U. S. Steel strike.
- 5. Families of the Calumet Region during the World War II Years (1979): World events had momentous consequences on the habits, obligations, social opportunities, and lifestyles of men, women, and children of many ethnic backgrounds.
- 6. Race-Relations in the Calumet Region during the 1960s (1980): Articles deal with school busing, changing neighborhoods, and the election Richard G. Hatcher, the United States' first African-American mayor.
- 7. Work Experiences in the Calumet Region (1981): Articles cover a variety of on-the-job experiences, such as grocer, teacher, surgical nurse, and fire captain.
- 8. Families of the Calumet Region during the Roaring 20s (1982): Depending often on race, class, age, and gender, respondents recalled a fun-filled, carefree era or a time of prejudice and toil.
- 9. Life of the Calumet Region during the 1970s (1983): An examination of emigrations from Southeast Asia, Greece, and Puerto Rico, and "white urban flight" to the suburbs.
Special Issues, volumes 10-18
- 10. Sports in the Calumet Region (1984): The recreational programs of settlement houses, Catholic parishes, and industrial leagues as well as high school basketball, known as "Hoosier Hysteria."
- 11. Darnell Lee's "2545 Pierce Street: From Ghetto to Limbo" (1985): A haunting autobiography of a black man striving to overcome poverty and a broken home.
- 12. Life in the Calumet Region during the Formative Years, 1900-20 (1982): Northwest Indiana was a microcosm of America during a period of immigration, urbanization, boss rule, and industrialization, which scarred its lakefront landscape.
- 13. Latinos in the Calumet Region (1987): Family histories that provide glimpses of group dynamics, organizational activities, child rearing practices, generational strains, and struggles against discrimination and cultural assimilation.
- 14. The Postwar Period in the Calumet Region, 1945-50 (1988): Region residents sought to buy homes for their expanding families, plus a variety of products that had been in short supply during the war.
- 15. Vietnam Vets from the Calumet Region (1988): Oral histories make vivid how a flawed foreign policy degraded idealism and destroyed innocence.
- 16. Concerned Citizens against the Bailly Nuclear Site (1988): Interviews with members of the Concerned Citizens as well as leaders of a more militant anti-nuclear group, the Bailly Alliance.
- 17. Depression Experiences (1988): A potpourri of stories about Hotel Gary maids, Depression diets, and making bootleg liquor in one's cellar.
- 18. John Letica's "Totin' Ties in the Harbor" (1989): A Croatian-American steelworker writes about coping with family dysfunction and hard times.
Life in the Calumet Region: volumes 19-27
- 19. Calumet Region Steelworkers' Tales (1990): Colorful anecdotes collected to test the validity of Richard Dorson's "folklore of steelworkers."
- 20. A History of Portage, Indiana (1991): Students conducted interviews of civic leaders and ordinary people in researching the modern history of a suburban community of 30,000.
- 21. Life in the Calumet Region during the 1980s (1992): Family dynamics, relationships between the sexes, work and leisure activities, crime, scandal, steel strikes, and other disasters.
- 22. Homefront: The World War II Years in the Calumet Region (1993): How World War II affected women, youth, and minorities.
- 23. Rah Rahs & Rebel 'Rousers: Relationships between the Sexes in the Calumet Region during the Teen Years of the 1950s (1994): Preoccupation with sex, cars, and rock n' roll gave the Fifties a special flavor.
- 24. Louis Vasquez's "Weasal" (1995): A self-proclaimed East Chicago "Harbor Rat" recalls friends forced to leave during the Repatriation program of the early 1930s.
- 25. Social Trends and Racial Tensions during the 1960s (1996): A diversity of lifestyles and surprising resilience of family values during a turbulent decade of experimentation.
- 26. A History of Cedar Lake (1997): Seminar students went to work documenting the town's recent past, both individually and in teams, ultimately conducting over 40 oral histories.
- 27. Froebel Daughters of Penelope (1998): After discovery of two manuscripts by daughters of Greek immigrants to Froebel, Gary's working-class district, interviews were conducted with them and their classmates.
A Delicate Mix: Volumes 28-36
- 28. Tales of Lake Michigan & the Northwest Indiana Dunelands (1998): Subjects range from moonlight beach parties and fishing tales to strange disappearances and boating accidents.
- 29. Tie-Dyes & Color Lines: Life in the Calumet Region during the 1970s (1999): Coping with the traumas of growing up, young adulthood, and staying afloat in a time of economic uncertainty.
- 30. "Steelworkers Fight Back": Rank & File Insurgency in the Calumet Region during the 1970s (2000): In addition to conducting over three dozen interviews, union records and other primary sources are employed to recount the history of a steel union local.
- 31. Shards & Midden Heaps: Life in the Calumet Region during the 1990s (2001): Beneath the placid surface social, racial, economic, and political tensions polarized the Region, and the arrival of casino boats turned some into gambling addicts.
- 32. Henry Farag's "The Signal: A Doo-Wop Rhapsody" (2001): Supplementing this autobiography of the lead singer of an a cappella group are anecdotes gleaned from informal interviews.
- 33. Life in the Calumet Region during the Year 2000 (2002): Oral reminiscences into the recent past, particularly a bitter hospital strike.
- 34. Age of Anxiety: Daily Life in the Calumet Region during the Postwar Years (2003): Interviews capture the effect locally of the Red Scare, personified by the jailing of a Croatian-born Communist who demonstrated against the Korean War.
- 35. Educating the Calumet Region: A History of Indiana University Northwest (2004): Not only were faculty and administrators interviewed but also hundreds of former students and campus police, staff and physical plant personnel.
- 36. Life in the Calumet Region during the Ides of March, 2003 (2005): In response to the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, protest activities sprang up. Focusing on eleven fateful days, the volume emphasizes family dynamics, work experiences, and coping with the pressures of modern life.
James B. Lane,
jblane@iun.edu
Archive Stories
MEXICO
"New Documents" in Oral History
Although traditional archivists and some researchers have showed suspicion and resistance towards any documentation that differs from written or iconographic documents, which they consider more trustworthy, sound and audio-visual testimony deserve greater acceptance within the different disciplines as reliable sources of information, as well as sources capable of being "stored" in archives. Sound and image, daily aspects of our existence, cannot stay out of the social analysis.
The advantages of such modes over the written documents are evident, as the sonority of voices, with their notes and intonations, and demonstrated emotions of the images of the interviewed persons, and images of their gestures, all are inaccessible aspects through writing. Now the new electronic media can help overcome the traditional limits on the use, storage, and conversion of audio-visual archives.
We know that direct access to original recordings by users is limited by the deterioration these records can suffer because of constant use. To store the material in an electronic mode instead, provides an access to sources with no fear that frequent use might damage the original recording, since the compact disc (CD) or the video digital disc (DVD) offer better resistance. Electronic documents facilitate a larger number of people having direct contact with archival materials that are close to the originals. The technical quality of recording is excellent in digital format and a multimedia archive gives us the ability to rely on several copies of the original testimony, since reproduction is such a simple process. Regarding storage, to constitute an electronic archive requires less space and equipment since the records are compacted into a smaller volume.
The conservation of electronic records is less complex than that of cassettes and videocassettes archives, which require a great deal of care with aspects such as the absolute control of climatic conditions, microorganisms or oxidation. It is also important to remember that many archives do not have the necessary equipment to place at public disposal their sound and audio-visual materials recorded in the "traditional" way, and that the video formats vary from one country to another and are not always compatible.
I would like to emphasize the urgency of taking advantage of the current technological advances and the need to convince our institutions to acquire the necessary equipment to accomplish this. That will determine the destiny of the materials and documents that we produce in our research. It will affirm our commitment to preserve the material for the benefit not only of the academy, but for society in general through the construction of source archives for ongoing research.
María Eugenia Guadarrama Olivera
Institute of Psychological Research, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico
mguadarrama@uv.mx
SPAIN
Oral Sources Archive for the Social History of Asturias, Spain
Two years ago we reported in these same pages about the Oral Sources Archive for the Social History of Asturias, a project that aimed to create and support an articulated generic corpus around a significant number of life stories that collected the experience and conditions of life and work of the popular classes in a regional frame. We are now able to evaluate the progress made, and face the uncertain outlook of things to come, factors that limit the project's development and put its continuity at risk.
A result of a process initiated in 2000, the original design has moved forward thanks to the collaboration between the MuZóz Zapico Fundation and the University of Oviedo. For the duration of the Investigation and Development funds, I+D (July 2002/December 2003) the following progress has been made:
- Collection of 80 life stories with a total of 1000 recording hours. The group of interviewees deepens in the profiles of manual workers and militants of the labor movement, although other groups have been considered, including housewives, fishermen, peasants, and even priests and lawyers.
- Design and improvement of an interview guide adapted to the specifics of the Asturian regional frame.
- Draft of working documents on aspects that for their complexity require a more intense preparation (social change, peasantry, sexuality, working cultures, mass media, women).
- Digitization and compression of the audio records.
- Creation of a specialized library.
- Development of a descriptive and classifying equipment destined to facilitate the access and custody of the collections.
Once this stage ended it was necessary to extend the efforts in at least two directions: the use of oral sources to preserve, construct, and divulge both individual and collective memory of the Asturian society; and the opening of the Archive as a live and dynamic entity capable of transferring the results and encouraging research from multiple points of view. Not only the continuation of the life stories by deepening into different social fields is proposed, but also the development of directed questionnaires, to understand and clarify certain phenomena of the reality often isolated from traditional research (genre relations, immigration, memory of repression, etc.). A second aim is to make the gathered information accessible, and also to encourage studies based on the collections, including publications and audio-visuals that can be used for research and teaching.
However, all this work is on hold because of the institutional reluctance to renew project funding at this time. Although our Autonomous Community relies on a recent law of Cultural Heritage that has the specific aim of preserving the oral memory, this intention has not been translated into the indispensable budget funds needed to achieve our intentions. The results reached so far are at risk of ending in storage, with no the possibility of researcher access. Future work may have tom be suspended for an indefinite time.
Jairo Fernández
rvega@uniovi.es
From Mouth to Page
Books
Voices from the Mountain, two new collections to complete the series of 10: Oral Testimonies from the Sierra Norte, Oaxaca, Mexico and Oral Testimonies from Shimshal, the Karakoram, Pakistan. Already published in the series are Oral Testimonies from: Nepal, India, Peru, China, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Kenya and Poland.
These two new booklets are packed with views and experience of change and development. Like other collections in the Voices from the Mountain series, they contain a blend of anecdote, information, history, culture, knowledge, opinion and experience-with all the contradictions this may imply. These are the individual voices of the ordinary people on whose actions development depends. They are at the heart of one of the key challenges of the next decade: how to meet national development needs without further marginalizing mountain peoples. If you are interested in development issues, in whatever region, these absorbing accounts will prove an excellent complement to other kinds of research and reporting, illustrating the complexities and realities of mountain living and bringing the issues to life.
Collections are published with maps, photos, index, and glossary. Copies are available free to the media and to resource-poor organizations in the South. Otherwise, copies are for sale for £5.00 each plus postage and packaging. To order, please send an email with your requirements to otp@panos.org.uk with your name, organization and full postal address. Alternatively, you can order online at http://www.panos.org.uk/oraltestimony/books
Other Panos mountain resources:
- www.mountainvoices.org, an on-line archive of in-depth interviews with mountain people around the world.
- High Stakes: the future for mountain societies: a Panos media report which outlines the issues facing mountain people and examines the ways forward during the International Year of Mountains and beyond. The report is available at www.panos.org.uk
All Panos mountain resources have been primarily funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, http:// www.sdc.admin.ch
Siobhan Warrington
Siobhan.Warrington@panos.org.uk
The Scent of Memory. Stories of Spanish Republican Refugees in Mexico, by Dolores Pla Brugat. México, Plaza y Valdés Eds. CONACULTA-INAH, 2003
The eleven stories collected in this book belong to men and women who were actors in and witnesses to the transcendental moments of the twentieth century. Born in different parts of Spain, they allow us to see through their personal experiences how it was that the country chose to end the Bourbon monarchy and establish the second republic in 1931; how brief the years of republican life were, and how they ended sadly after three years of civil war. After their defeat, their life as exiles allow us to understand the times of uncertainty before the Second World War, as well as those years of sacrifice and hope during the fight. Their memories show us how even in uncertain times solidarity was possible. When the entire world turned their back leaving them alone with their luck, the Mexico of Lázaro Cárdenas welcomed them. It was an especially fortune meeting that extended into decades, a story that is also represented in these stories.
These oral histories were originally conducted by the author for the Spanish Republican Refugees in Mexico, an oral history project sponsored by the National Institute of Anthropology and History. The publication received help from the Brazilian specialist in oral history José Carlos Sebe Bom Meihy, who made possible to a great extent the "transcreation" of the stories. This does not consist solely of making the interview legible, since the original version of the transcription is usually difficult reading, or in arranging by subject or chronologically what the interviewee exposes in a seemingly erratic form when trying to put memories into words. It is more than that. The Mexican writer Martin Luis Guzmán used to say that nobody writes what he intends to write but what remains written; paraphrasing him, it is possible to say that nobody says what he intends to say but what remains recorded. The main function of the "transcreation" is to make a text as close as possible to what the interviewee wanted to express.
The texts collected in this book do not intend to be a source for History, with a capital letter-though they can also be-but basically the versions that the interviewees have of their own lives and of the environments in which they happened to live. Regarding this, on life-on lives-it is what The Scent of Memory is about.
Dolores Pla
National Institute of Anthropology and History, Mexico.
dpla.deh@inah.gob.mx
Journals
CONTRIBUTIONS SOUGHT FROM ROME PARTICIPANTS
Oral History, the journal of the UK Oral History Society, welcomes articles from contributors from all disciplines and backgrounds who are interested in joining in debates and discussions and seeing their ideas and research published in a journal which has been established for over thirty years. Oral History is unusual in that it seems to make an appeal that crosses traditional boundaries between academic and community based activity, while remaining in dialogue with both. If you presented a paper at the Rome conference and would like to work it up for publication in Oral History, we look forward to hearing from you. Our notes for authors are available on the Oral History Society web site: http://www.oralhistory.org.uk
For further information contact any of the journal editors:
Joanna Bornat: j.bornat@open.ac.uk
Rob Perks: Rob Perks: rob.perks@bl.uk
Sheena Rolph: s.e.rolph@open.ac.uk
Al Thomson: a.s.thomson@sussex.ac.uk
TRANSFORMATIONS: SPECIAL ISSUE ON TEACHING THROUGH TESTIMONY
Due to overwhelming responses, the editors of Transformations plan on a Part II of the special issue "Teaching through Testimony." Essays submitted in response to the original call as well as new submissions will be considered.
Testimony comes in many forms-autobiography, memoir, poetry, personal narrative, oral history, primary source material, historical documents, eyewitness accounts, and individual experiences. Using testimony as a pedagogical tool raises such questions as: How does one define subjectivity and objectivity? Who has the authority to speak and who is silenced? How do we theorize and analyze "experience"? What is the relationship between different experiences of trauma, both personal and historical? What is the role of community in the creation and validation of narratives of witness? What are the ethics of testimony? How are testimonial narratives mediated and represented?
The editors of Transformations seek articles (5,000 to 8,000 words) and media reviews (books, film, video, performance, art, music, etc., 1,500 to 5,000 words) examining approaches to teaching testimony in a variety of contexts: creative writing, oral history, women's and gender studies, anthropology, literature, history, psychology, sociology, art, photography, geography, religion, environmental studies, philosophy, working-class studies, ethnic studies, cultural studies, and others. Multidisciplinary approaches that focus on--or include--discussions of non-Western cultures are especially encouraged. Autobiographical criticism, narrative scholarship, photo-essays, and experimental work are welcome.
Topics might include, but are not limited to: How teaching through testimony can be implemented at all levels, K-12 and higher education. How teaching through testimony can be relevant to progressive education. Hybrid genres: from confessional criticism to the lyric essay. How teaching through testimony relates to topics such as war, genocide, domestic abuse, conflict resolution, poverty, racism, citizenship and civil rights. Teaching through testimony in non-academic spaces such prisons, shelters, homes for youth at risk, etc.
Send one hard copy to: Jacqueline Ellis and Edvige Giunta, Editors, Transformations, New Jersey City University, Grossnickle Hall Room 303, 2039 Kennedy Boulevard, Jersey City, NJ 07305. Or email submissions and inquiries to: transformations@njcu.edu. Email submissions should be sent as attachments in MS Word or Rich Text format. For submission guidelines go to www.njcu.edu/assoc/transformations.
Edvig Giunta
egiunta@njcu.edu
FROM ALL QUARTERS: JOURNAL OF THE ORAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA, no.25, 2003
ARTICLES:
| . | Walking a Different Road: Recording Oral History with Darby Jampijinpa Ross, Liam Campbell |
| . | Turning the Map Upside Down, Bill Bunbury |
| . | Twenty-Five Years of Cultural Change in Fremantle: A History of an Oral History Project, Alison Gregg |
| . | The Midland Workshops History Project as a Teaching Resource, Bobbie Oliver |
| . | Suburban Voices of Multicultural Manningham, Lesley Alves |
| . | Blended Voices: Crafting a Narrative from Oral History Interviews, Rebecca Jones |
| . | Quiet Voices of Strong-Minded Women: The Use of Oral History in the Development of a Case Study of Library Paraprofessionals in Australia, Judy Clayden |
| . | Hushed Voices! Are Parents the Primary Educators of Their Children in Catholic Education? Nance Millar |
| . | 'But the Jews Have to Go Out!': The School Experience of Jewish Pupils in Nazi Magdeburg, Michael Abrahams-Sprod |
| . | The Yachtsmen Scheme, 1940-1942, Janet Roberts Billett |
| . | Good Riddance: Local Government & Waste Management, Pauline Curby & Virginia MacLeod |
Oral History, Vol 33, no 1, Spring 2005
ARTICLES:
| . | Mythologising Al-Nakba: Narratives, Collective Identity and Cultural Practice Among Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon, Diana Allan |
| . | Gypsy Oral History in Serbia: From Poverty to Culture, Jelena Cvorocic |
| . | Hearing Women's Voices: Female Migration to Canada in the Early Twentieth Century, Marilyn Barber |
| . | "I don't think they ever really wanted to know anything about us": Oral History Interviews with Learning Disability Nurses, Duncan Mitchell and Anne-Marie Rafferty |
| . | Bury Me in Purple Lurex: Promoting a New Dynamic Between Fashion and Oral Historical Research, Geraldine Biddle-Perry |
| . | Applying to the Heritage Lottery Fund: The Portsmouth Experience, John Stedman |
PUBLIC HISTORY:
| . | Crossing Cultures: Oral History and Public History, Jill Liddington and Graham Smith |
| . | Vox Pop, David Vanderstel, Gillian Reynolds, Tony Buckley, Jane Walton, Steve Humphries, Parita Mukta, Mabel Cooper, John Hargreaves, Paul Ashton, Sean Field, and Rob Perks |
| . | Public History: A Critical Bibliography, Jill Liddington and Simon Ditchfield |
BOOK REVIEWS:
| . | History and the Media, David Cannadine |
| . | The English Civil War Part II: Personal Accounts of the 1984-85 Miners' Strike, Jeremy Deller |
| . | After Such Knowledge: A Meditation on the Aftermath of the Holocaust, Eva Hoffman |
| . | Somalia - The Untold Story: The War Through The Eyes of Somali Women, Judith Gardner and Judy el Bushra |
| . | D-Day Sixtieth Anniversary Exhibition, Imperial War Museum, London, Insistent Voices: Stories on Claiming Identity, Tony Taylor |
| . | The Making of the Modern Kitchen: A Cultural History, June Freeman n Qualitative Research Practice, Clive Searle, Giampietro Gobo, Jaber F. Gubrium and David Silverman |
All the articles are abstracted on the Oral History Society website: http://www.oralhistory.org.uk
Oral History Review, Vol 31, no 2, Winter/Spring 2004
ARTICLES:
| . | "It Tears the Heart Right Out of You": Memories of a Striker Replacement at the International Paper Company in De Pere, Wisconsin, 1987-88, Timothy J. Minchin |
| . | Communities of Resistance: Women and the Catholic Left of the Late 1960s, Marian Mollin |
| . | Gaining Access and Sharing Authority: What I Learned About Oral History from an Episode in U.S.-China Transnationalism, Norton Wheeler |
| . | Remembering a Vietnam War Firefight: Changing Perspectives Over Time, Fred H. Allison |
MEDIA REVIEWS:
| . | Hazel Dickens-It's Hard to Tell the Singer from the Song, Brent Bjorkman |
| . | 1932: Scars of Memory, Carlos A. Fernandez |
| . | Through the Eyes of a Child: Growing Up Black in St. Louis, 1940-1980, Anne M. Valk |
BOOK REVIEWS:
| . | A Way Out of No Way, Albert Broussard |
| . | Sticking to the Union: An Oral History of the Life and Times of Julia Ruuttila, Paul Buhle |
| . | The Oral History Manual, Lu Ann Jones |
| . | From Auschwitz to Ithaca: The Transnational Journey of Jake Geldwert, Mark Klempner |
| . | All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene of the 1960s, Chris Martin |
| . | Crossing the Blvd: Strangers, Neighbors, Aliens in a New America, Courtney E. Martin |
| . | Worked Over: The Corporate Sabotage of an American Community, J. Michael Moore |
| . | The Dust of Life: America's Children Abandoned in Vietnam, Sandy Polishuk |
| . | Dorothy Day: Portraits by Those Who Knew Her, Carole Garibaldi Rogers |
| . | Wisconsin Indians and Indian Nations of Wisconsin: Histories of Endurance and Renewal, Barbara W. Sommer |
| . | The Order Has Been Carried Out: History, Memory, and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome, John B. Wolford |
| . | The Silk Weavers of Kyoto: Family and Work in a Changing Traditional Industry, Kayoko Yoshida |
Put it in Writing
WORDS AND SILENCES
the journal of the IOHA, is seeking contributions for the 2006 issue on:
1. Teaching oral history
We are asking authors to reflect on their experience as teachers of oral history, and perhaps measure it against what they think is really worth teaching and learning about oral history. You may teach in a university, middle school or a non-school setting. There are a number of issues to discuss in terms of the different kinds of settings and students, overall goals, central concepts, emphasis on technique or analytical frameworks and so on. And this may lead into a discussion of what books work in what situations or of in-class exercises and practical training projects you have developed. Another large and undoubtedly important question is whether we see our students change as they learn and do oral history. These are of course only suggestions. Your experience in teaching perhaps raises different questions so please do share your ruminations and illuminate other corners of the classroom.
We prefer concise and reflective essays (about 2500 words) rather than longer and descriptive monographs.
2. Collections and archives
This section is devoted to discussion of practical problems encountered in the creation and preservation of oral sources. Please send in preferably short pieces (500-1000 words) and share your accumulated wisdom in the field.
3. Reviews of books, films, plays or other performances or exhibits that rely on oral history.
GUIDELINES
- Contributions may be written in English or Spanish (or both, which would save us translation work).
- Use Word for windows 95 or later.
- In short pieces please include references, if necessary, in the text and not as footnotes.
- For longer pieces, place footnotes at the end, as text and not in the automatic format.
- References:
- Author (first and last name), Title (bold if a book, "in quotes if an article, diss, etc."), Publication data (Place, Publisher, date if book; name of journal in bold, no. and date if article), p. or pp.
- Subsequent references: Author's last name, shortened title, p. or pp.
- Interviews: Interviewee's full name, interviewed by (interviewer's full name), place, date, reference to collection if any.
Please email your article as an attachment to:
wordsandsilences@inah.gob.mx or gnecoechea.deh@deh.inah.gob.mx
The DEADLINE for receipt of contributions is 1 February 2006.
Please pass this request on to other oral historians.
IOHA Newsletter Guidelines and Deadlines:
Copy is preferred as Microsoft Word attachment. Footnotes included in items should be included only in parentheses and not formatted.
Images and illustrations should be scanned at 72 dpi and sent in jpg ou pic formats.
Send via e-mail to both co-editors:
Don Ritchie (English text) - oralhistorians@comcast.net
Pilar Domínguez (Spanish text)- pdprats@dch.ulpgc.es
Maximum Length:
· Future conferences, meetings, and other announcements - 250 words
· Conference reports - 500 words
· Archive News - 500 words
· New Projects - 1000 words
Deadlines:
· October 15 - posted to website in January.
· April 15 - posted to website in June
IOHA Membership Details
The International Oral History Association (IOHA) was formally constituted in June 1996 at the IXth International Oral History Conference in Goteborg, Sweden. The Association provides a forum for oral historians around the world, in order to foster international communication and cooperation and a better understanding of the nature and value of oral history. The Association meets every two years in a different region or continent. Benefits of membership include:
- concessionary rates for the biennial international oral history conferences
- copies of Words and Silences, the annual, bilingual (English and Spanish) Journal of the IOHA (containing oral history articles, an index of oral history journals from around the world, special items and commentaries on oral history issues)
- access to the IOHA home page on the world wide web
- access to IOHA News, the on-line newsletter of the Association
- voting rights at the Association's General Meetings and Council elections
- active participation in the international community of oral historians.
Membership is open to any individual or institution supporting the aims and objectives of the Association. The Association is governed by a Council elected at the General Meeting of the biennial international oral history conference. The President of the Association is Rina Benmayor, from the United States, and current Council members come from Australia, Barbados, Brazil, England, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and the United States
For membership forms, go to Membership on the IOHA website. For inquiries e-mail the Association's treasurer, Almut Leh (almut.leh@fernuni-hagen.de).
Fees for two-year membership (July 2004 - June 2006)
· Individuals: 46 Euros
· Institutions: 92 Euros
· Students: 23 Euros