oral history

 

historiography graduate seminar series

 

 

Some of the regular participants in the historiography seminar. [26/11/08]
For the spring semester 2009 schedule go here.

 

autumn semester 2009

 

 

A seminar series convened by Dr. Elaine Sisson and Dr. Lisa Godson examining the kinds of challenges presented by historical researches rooted in attending to cultural practice within broadly interdisciplinary enquiries. Contact elaine.sisson(at)iadt.ie and godsonl(at)ncad.ie

 

 

about oral history graduate seminar

 

"Oral stories are not always fully reliable in point of fact. Rather than being a weakness, this is, however, their strength: errors, inventions and myths lead us through and beyond facts to their meanings."
Alessandro Portelli. (1990) The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History (New York: SUNY Press 1990)

This is a development from the Gradcam 2008/2009 Historiography Seminar. In it we will explore the methods, practices and theories of oral history. It will include workshops on interviewing techniques, site visits and seminars. Oral history has been largely important in recording the experiences of people and communities who might otherwise be hidden from history. While this is one aspect of what we will explore, within this seminar oral history will be treated less as a positivist method for gathering information but as a practice that gives invaluable insight into the construction of historical consciousness itself.

We would strongly recommend that participants purchase a copy of The Oral History Reader (1998) Routledge Ed. Robert Perks, Alistair Thomson (2nd edn 2006)

 

  • 30/9/09 Wed 14:00-17:00
    Intro: The history of oral history

    Alessandro Portelli (1981) “On the Peculiarities of Oral History” History Workshop Journal. No. 12 : 96-107 in The Oral History Reader: 531-537.
    Daniel James ‘Listening in the Cold. The practice of oral history in an Argentine meatpacking community’ extracted from James’s Dona Maria’s Story: Life History, Memory and Political Identity, Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2000, pp.119-156

     

  • 14/10/09 Wed 14:00-17:00
    Workshop on Interviewing/Oral History

    Reading: William A. Christian, (1996) Visionaries: the Spanish Republic and the Reign of Christ. Berkeley: University of California Press (Chapter 7)

     

  • 22/10/09 Thurs
    John Schofield Session: Archaeology /Memory/ Site

     

  • 28/10/09 Wed 14:00-17:00
    Testimony/Witness and the Interview

    Valerie Yow. “Do I like them too much?’ Oral history review 1997 vol 24 no 1 Oral History Reader
    Katherine Borland ‘That’s Not What I Said’ Interpretive Conflict in Oral Narrative Research. Oral History Reader.
    Patricia Lundy and Mark McGovern. (2004) ‘You Understand Again’: Testimony and post-conflict transition in the north of Ireland Words and Silences: Journal of the International Oral History Association, 2004. Vol. 2, no. 2, pp.30-35

     

  • 11/11/09 Wed 14:00-17:00

    Shepard Krech (1991) “The State of Ethnohistory” Annual Review of Anthropology Vol 20: 345-375 (pdf)
    Anne Markey, (2006). The Discovery of Irish Folklore. New Hibernia Review - Volume 10, Number 4, Geimhreadh/Winter: 21-43

     

  • 25/11/09 Wed 14:00-17:00
    Visit to Irish Folklore Commission

    Readings: Ó Súilleabháin, Sean. (1942) A Handbook of Irish Folklore (Folklore Society of Ireland: Dublin)

     

  • 9/12/09 Wed 14:00-17:00
    Orality Literacy and Textuality

    Michael Frisch. (2004) Oral History and the Digital Revolution: toward a post-documentary sensibility. Earlier version at the XIIIth International Oral History Conference, Rome, June 2004
    (excerpt) Lukacs, Georg. (1983) The Historical Novel. University of Nebraska Press.

     

 

supplementary reading

 

Jeffrey Barash (1997) “The Sources of Memory” Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol 58. No. 4 (Oct): 707-17 (pdf)
Beiner, Guy. (2000) "Negotiations of Memory: Rethinking 1798 Commemoration". The Irish Review, Volume 26, Number 1, Autumn: 60-70(11)
Beiner, Guy. (2006) Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Blatti, Jo. (1990) “Public History and Oral History” The Journal of American History Vol. 77, No. 2 (Sept), pp. 615-625 (pdf)
Peter Burke. (2003) “Images as Evidence in seventeenth Century Europe.” Journal of the History of Ideas. Vol 64. No. 2: 273-296 (pdf)
Dolan, Anne. Commemorating the Irish Civil War: History and Memory 1923-2000 (Cambridge)
Markey, Anne, (2006) "The Discovery of Irish Folklore." New Hibernia Review - Volume 10, Number 4, Geimhreadh/Winter: 21-43
Ó Súilleabháin, Sean. (1942) A Handbook of Irish Folkore (Folklore Society of Ireland: Dublin)
Samuel, Raphael. Theatres of Memory
Thomson, E.P. The Making of the English Working Class
Tonkin, Elizabeth, (1992) Narrating Our Pasts: The Social Construction of Oral History, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Andrea Fontana The Interview from Formal to Postmodern. Left Coast Press, 2007 (2006) The Oral History Reader
Barbara Sommer. The Oral History Manual.
Rosenzweig, Roy. (2006) "Can History be Open Source: Wikipedia and the Future of the Past." Journal of American History. Vol. 93. No.1 June (not open source)

 

website sources

 

British Oral History Society

 

For additional information on the collaborating institutions consult www.dit.ie, www.ncad.ie, www.iadt.ie and www.ulster.ac.uk.