Columbia Center for Oral History Summer Institute

Written by Mandi Magnuson-Hung

(From Columbia University Libraries, Columbia Center for Oral History)

Summer Institute

Each summer in New York City, CCOH sponsors an annual Summer Institute, which brings together oral historians, scholars, activists, and others for two weeks of advanced training in the theory and practice of oral history. Participants work with world-class instructors, network with oral historians from around the world and go to exhibits in New York City. Each year we focus on a different theme.

Announcing the 2012 CCOH Summer Institute

The Columbia Center for Oral History is proud to announce its 2012 Summer Institute, “What is Remembered: Life Story Approaches in Human Rights Contexts,” to be held June 4-15, 2012 at Columbia University in New York City.  Sessions will explore the methodological and theoretical implications of doing life story research with individuals who have suffered human rights abuses and other forms of discrimination.  The institute will focus on the role of oral history in documenting such histories, but also in interpreting the strategies of resistance and survival of creative individuals and communities that have lived through difficult times.

General themes of the institute will include: the challenges of doing fieldwork in post-conflict societies, including remembrance of personal violence; the uses of oral sources in expressing emotion and facilitating constructive actions; and the uses of informal and official forms of life histories in addressing the tensions between individual and collective remembering.  The Institute will also include practical workshops in digital storytelling, interviewing and editing.

Core faculty will include:

  • Mary Marshall Clark, Director of the Columbia Center for Oral History and co-director of the Oral History Master of Arts Program at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy of Columbia University;
  • Alessandro Portelli , Professor of Anglo-American Literature at the University of Rome-La Sapienza;
  • Representatives from the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada;
  • Taylor Krauss, Executive Director of Voices of Rwanda;
  • Douglas Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries;
  • Ronald J. Grele, Director Emeritus of the Columbia Center for Oral History.

CCOH staff, students from the Oral History Master of Arts Program (OHMA), and others who have worked in the archive will enrich our discussions with their interpretations.

The application form is available for download here [pdf] [doc]. Completed applications and supporting documentation should be e-mailed to:ccohsummerinstitute@libraries.cul.columbia.edu.

The application deadline is March 15, 2012. All applicants will be notified of their status by April 15, 2012, although earlier decisions are available for those who need to apply for funding or visas.

Low-cost on-campus housing will be available for those outside of the New York City area.