International Oral History Association
(Published each 4 months)
Number 3, April 1999
Starting Points
Procedure for elections at general meetings
The General Meeting of the International Oral History Association (IOHA) will take place at the biennial IOHA Conference. The following election procedures were agreed and used at the IOHA General Meeting in Rio de Janeiro on 18 June 1998, and will be the procedure for elections at the IOHA Conference in 2000.
The IOHA membership period for payment of dues runs from July 1 in the year of the IOHA biennial conference until June 30 two years later in the year of the next IOHA conference. Members joining at any time in this two year period will pay the full fee and be entitled to full membership rights, including the right to vote in the General Meeting at the IOHA Conference at the end of their membership period. People who join the IOHA at the IOHA Conference will be members until June 30 in the year of the next IOHA Conference, and will be eligible to vote at both conferences. Institutional members of the IOHA will not be entitled to vote at the IOHA General Meeting.
The IOHA General Meeting at the 11th International Oral History Conference will be considering a constitutional amendment to allow for affiliated IOHA membership for the members of national oral history associations which affiliate to the IOHA. If this amendment is accepted then individual members of affiliated associations will be entitled to vote if they are present at the IOHA General Meeting.
General meeting election procedure
1. Voting Cards
At the start of the General Meeting the IOHA Membership Secretary will hand out two voting 'cards' to each IOHA member who is present at the meeting. The first voting card will be used for the election of President and Vice-Presidents, and for other votes in the General Meeting. The second voting card is for the election of IOHA Council members, and will include spaces for the voter to write the names of up to nine candidates.
2. Election of IOHA President
A Council member who is not standing for President will chair the Presidential election at the General Meeting. He or she will ask for Presidential nominations from the General meeting. Each nomination must have a proposer and a seconder. If there is only one nomination, that person is automatically elected. If there is more than one nomination, each candidate will make a short speech and then all candidates will leave the room. IOHA members will then vote by raising their voting card for their preferred candidate. The Chair-person will appoint vote counters and will announce the elected President, who will take over as Chair-person of the meeting.
3. Election of two Vice-Presidents
The President will then ask the General Meeting to nominate and second candidates for the two positions of Vice-President. The election procedure is the same as for the Presidential election. Each member is entitled to vote for two candidates, and the two candidates with the most votes are elected Vice-Presidents.
4. Election of IOHA Council members
The President will then ask the General Meeting to nominate and second candidates for the IOHA Council. The names of nominees will be written up in lists for each continent (Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa and Australasia). Each nominee will be invited to make a very short speech. A secret ballot will then take place, with each member using their second voting card to record the names of up to nine candidates for whom they wish to vote (it does not matter in which order the names are ranked - each name will receive one vote). These voting forms will be collected and the two Vice-Presidents will tally the votes for each candidate. The candidate with the most votes is elected and represents his or her continent. The candidate with the second most votes from a different continent is elected and represents his or her continent. The candidate with the third most votes from a different continent is elected and represents his or her continent ... and so on until five of the continents have representatives, as required in the IOHA Constitution. Then the four candidates with the next most votes are elected.
From Mouth to Page
Oral History for high school students
Historia Oral,
from Pilar Gómez, Pablo Gómez and Pilar Sánchez, published
by Editorial Teide,
is a textbook for high school students in Spain. Published originally in
Catalan (with a Spanish edition in progress), this book belongs to new
texts being prepared by the new Spanish educational system. It is thought
so that the pupil will participate actively in the reconstruction of the
recent past, initiating in the historical research using written and above
all oral sources. The book has the didactic parts, each one divided in
a theory part where are explained the steps towards an oral history project;
a second part exemplifies the theory with a concrete oral history project,
and the third under the title "Your project" shows the tasks students have
to undertake to develop their own research.
Neho-Historia requests articles.
The Center for Oral History Studies (Núcleo de Estudios en Historia Oral) of the University of São Paulo in Brazil invites oral historians to send, articles, reviews, projects and all manner of information, before May 25th, to be published in Neho-Historia, a magazine which sets out to be a forum for debates regarding oral history. They are primarily interested in texts focused on oral history, illiteracy, and social movements. Also, articles are published on the theory and methodology of oral history. Two copies of texts, in Portuguese or English, should be sent, along with a diskette in Microsoft Word : the maximum number of pages for articles is 10, and for reviews 5. Articles should include, as an attachment, a 10-line resumé and a glossary of key words in Portuguese or English. For further information, contact: Núcleo de Estudios em Histórica Oral, Departamento de História - FFLCH-USP, Av. Lineu Prestes, 338 -Sala 27, CEP: 05508-900, San Paulo, SP, Brasil. (frbrito@usp.br).
The editors of the forthcoming issue of Words and Silences (Volume 2, Number 1, July 1999) have decided not to include articles in the publication, as there are already so many national journals publishing on oral history. What they hope to include in each issue (as well as national reports and journal contents listings) is a feature that highlights and explores comparative issues in oral history around the world. For the forthcoming issue they have decided to include a section titled 'a most memorable interview'. We invite you, together with oral historians in different parts of the world, to write a short informal piece (200 to 500 words but no longer please) about one of your most memorable interviews. It might be a recent interview or one from long ago; it might have been a 'good' or a 'bad' interview. But it has stayed vividly in your memory. The aim is to briefly describe the interview and to explain what was learnt about any aspect of the theory and practice of oral history from that interview. It is left to your discretion whether or not to name or anonymise the interviewee. The editors hope you can participate in what will be an anthology of oral historians remembering significant interviews and sharing their own learning. If you do not have access to email, please post or fax a copy (if possible including a floppy disc, preferably Macintosh but PC is OK - please label the software). Alistair Thomson, Centre for Continuing Education, University of Sussex Brighton, BN1 9RG, UK. email a.s.thomson@sussex.ac.uk ,phone 01273-606755 ext 3585, fax 01273-678848. If you can only produce the text in Spanish, please send it to the Spanish-language co-editor Graciela de Garay (ggaray@institutomora.edu.mx). They need the piece by *Monday May 10* (earlier if possible) in order to arrange Spanish translation, where necessary.
Face to Face
Second Northern Region (Brasil/Amazonia)Oral History Encounter.
The Brazilian Oral History Association (Associação Brasileira de História Oral, or ABHO) invites participants to the Second Northern Region Oral History Encounter (Belém 25th-28th May, 199). The event will include conferences, round tables, courses and work groups on family and gender; identity and ethnicity; social and political movements; popular culture and education; rural and urban life; oral history; theory and practice. Deadline for enrollment and submission of resumés (10 lines maximum) is April 30th, 1999. For further details, contact: en Associação Paraense de Historia oral - alonso@nautilus.com.br. Tel: (091)211-1442; Fax: (091)211-1604, ACF Núcleo Uiinversitário, Caixa Postal 8614, CEP 66075-970, Belém, PA, Brasil.
Interdisciplinary conference to be held at the Institute of Education, London, September 17-19, 1999. In the last decade or so, work centered around the idea of memory has come to prominence across a wide range of disciplines: history, literature, philosophy, anthropology and cultural studies have placed memory at the heart of their various interrogations of subjectivity, narrative time and imagination. Themes will include: Spaces of Memory: memory and places, 'les lieux de memoire', public and private memory, the place of the nation; Times of Memory : histories of memory, memory and temporality, memory's time/s; Regimes of Memory: disciplinary constructions of and deployments of memory: science, law, medicine, psychology, psychoanalysis; epistemologies of memory; The Stuff of Memory: material memories, textual memory; Subjects of Memory: identity politics, subjectivity and memory, memory/fantasy, memory and narrative; Cultures of Memory : heritage culture, 'hystories', recovered memory debates, 'roots' culture. Further enquiries to conference organizers: Kate Hodgkin or Susannah Radstone, Dept of Cultural Studies, University of East London, Longbridge Road, Dagenham, Essex, RM8 2AS, United Kingdom. Tel: 0181 8493545, Fax: 01818493598, email: K.Hodgkin@uel.ac.uk or S.Radstone@uel.ac.uk
'Giving Voice': Oral History Association National Meeting
The theme of the Oral History Association (USA) national meeting (7-10 October, 1999, Anchorage, Alaska, USA) is 'Giving Voice: Oral Historians and the Shaping of Narrative'. In recent years, oral historians have recorded many voices that had rarely been heard outside their home communities. 'Giving Voice' suggests many things: breaking silence, being heard, speaking truth; facilitating or directing speech; issues of representation and appropriation; translating and mediating meaning; collaboration and shared authority; authorship and reflexivity; opportunities and constraints of various forms of publication or production. The organizers hope the program will reflect local work as well as other ways in which the conference theme can be approached. For further information contact: Susan Armitage Editor, Frontiers , Women's Studies Program, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164-4007, (509) 335-8569. e-mail: (queries only, no proposals) armitage@wsu.edu
The re-siting of Memory: remembering World War Two in the new Europe
Conference jointly organized at the University of Portsmouth, 12-13 November 1999, by the Centre for European Studies Research and the History Research Centre, University of Portsmouth; the Parkes Centre, University of Southampton; the Wiener Library, London and the Institute of Contemporary British History. Further details with Martin Evans, University of Portsmouth, School of Languages and Area Studies, Park Building, King Henry 1 St, Portsmouth, PO1 2DT, email martin.evans@port.ac.uk.
"Archives and oral sources: definition, management and projects"
(10 december 1999, Barcelona). The City Historical Archive of Barcelona in its 75th anniversary, will hold a special day of reflection and debate about Oral Sources. The aim is to ponder contributions from the perspective of the archives or from historical research. In the morning session professors Eugenia Meyer, Pilar Folguera, Alicia Alted, Mercedes Vilanova, and Lluís Ubeda will participate. The evening session will be dedicated to the exposition of papers. We welcome a variety of papers, but we want to emphasize the developing of the historiographic design and the archival management of the sources. The papers, of no more than 10 double-spaced pages (in paper and diskette PC) must reach before october 1, 1999. For further details and papers, contact: Archivo Histórico de la Ciudad. Dpt. de Fuentes Orales. Sta. Llúcia, 1. 08002 Barcelona. Tel. 93-3181195. Fax 93-3178327. E-mail: ahcbhafo@trivium.gh.ub.es.
Conference organized by the Department of History, University of Southampton, in association with the Parkes Centre for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations and City Heritage Services, Southampton City Council, 14-17 April, 2000, Southampton, England. The Department of History at the University of Southampton is organizing a major international conference on 'The Memory of Catastrophe'. The purpose of the conference is to bring together scholars from a range of academic disciplines, with an interest in catastrophes of any historical period, to discuss the ways in which these events are remembered and the impact those memories have upon the affected communities, be they local, national or international. To propose a paper for this conference, please send an abstract of 200-300 words to the organizers by March 31, 1999. Papers should combine an original contribution to the study of catastrophic memory with accessibility to a general academic audience, and last no more than 40 minutes. Topics currently proposed for the conference include: Popular memories of the English Civil War; Memory and commemoration of the Great Irish Famine; America and the Vietnam War: the role of narrative in veterans' and national memory. For information, visit our web-site at ww.soton.ac.uk/~ko/index.htm
19th International Congress of Historical Sciences
University of Oslo (Blindern campus), 6-13 August, 2000, Oslo). The conference program is organized around major and specialized themes including: millennium, time and history; the uses and misuses of history; memory and collective identity; religion and gender; family structures; regions and regionalization; masculinity; totalitarianism; minority cultures and environmental history. Round Tables include the teaching of history, radio and television as sources, gay and lesbian history; the history of disease, tourism and history; and the opening of archives. For further details contact: email: oslo2000@hf.uio.no; web-site:www.hf.uio.no/oslo2000
Put it in Writing
Cultural map of meaningful spaces in America.
We are pleased to inform you of our multi-media project entitled Viaje Infinito (Endless Journey), which plans incursions into the documentary genre using a fiction format. It also includes an academic side of considerable importance, called Camino de las Culturas (The Culture Route) in which we hope to awake your interest. The educational project proposes to draw a cultural map of meaningful spaces in America, from a multi-disciplinary angle, involving research done in various fields (from cultural studies, anthropology, history or sociology to literature and other artistic phenomena). We wish to make initial contact, as we are with many other universities and study centers in South America. Maria Josefa Barra, Khédija Gadhoum Jorge Monteleone, Anibal Roman Guiser. Pantaleón Rivarola 2427, Depto-9 1417 Buenos Aires, Argentina Tel/Fax: (541) 4 501-3265 (anibal@ba.net)
Possible Applications of Oral History in the Study of Epilepsy
I am interested in qualitative research and, concretely, propose to rescue the personal and family experiences of people who suffer from, or have suffered from, epilepsy. I consider that the experience of this illness cannot be accessed through traditional methods such as surveys, measurement scales, inventories, etc., since the richness of individual experience is thereby lost. It has taken me some time to find a suitable methodology for tackling this problem. In this search, I have been surprised to discover that a different methodology exists –that of oral history, which I consider more suitable for my needs: Hence, I ask you to give me any information you have or tell me whom I should approach, for information about courses or workshops in this methodology, which would support me in my work. Or, any Doctoral program available which handles this methodology. Ana Silva Figueroa Duarte. Avenida Siete No. 57, entre Uno y Dos Colonia Bugambilia, CP 83140, Hermosillo, Sonora, México. Tel/Fax: 01(62)14-40-84.
Edited by: Eugenia Meyer and Eva Salgado, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Translation: Fred Rogers. In charge of printing and distribution: Mercedes Vilanova, Montserrat Condomines and Lluis Ubeda. Printed by: HAFO, Barcelona, Spain. Print run: 150 copies. (Contributions and suggestions: hel@servidor.unam.mx and ahcbhafo@trivium.gh.ub.es)