“A University of Manchester team of researchers and volunteers who have been documenting NHS voices of COVID-19 since March, are to join forces with the British Library thanks a grant of nearly £1m. Dr Stephanie Snow, who leads the influential ‘NHS at 70’ project, and her team have already collected over 200 COVID-19 voices, including Nick Hart, the respiratory doctor who treated Prime Minister Boris Johnson in intensive care.” Read more here and click link at end of article to hear interview excerpts.
Blog
Peer Support Meeting
You are invited to join other OHQ members to discuss your current or proposed projects at the next of these meetings on 20 February 2021 10.00 am to 12.00 pm via Zoom, facilitated by member Anne Monsour. Everyone is welcome to join in to learn, and share their experiences.
Let’s focus on the challenges of interviewing. Who are you interviewing, why, how? What challenges have these interviews presented? How will you use these interviews?
If you have different issues in relation to your oral history practice that you would like to discuss, let us know. Email info@ohq.org.au with your RSVP and specific issues/topics you wish to discuss. You will then receive the Zoom link information. This is a great opportunity for members from all over Queensland to receive advice and interact with other members.
COVID in Singapore
“Oral records provide a rich understanding of how the pandemic unfolded through first-person accounts. This is why the National Archives of Singapore (NAS) has been conducting 10 in-depth interviews from a diverse selection of profiles each month. The subjects range from healthcare professionals and officers on duty to patients and people living through the upheaval that COVID-19 has wrought.” Read full story with link to project here.
Telescope Scientist Dies
“George R. Carruthers, an astrophysicist and engineer who was the principal designer of a telescope that went to the moon as part of NASA’s Apollo 16 mission in 1972 in an effort to examine Earth’s atmosphere and the composition of interstellar space, died Dec. 26 at a Washington hospital. He was 81.” Read full story with link to his oral history interview here.
Oral History in time of COVID
“Audience invited to express their curiosities and specific interests in oral history, which include tools, teaching tips, methods/ethics in COVID, best practices for transcription.” See video recording here.
Russians in Alaska
“For thousands of years, the Tlingit people made their home in the islands of Southeast Alaska among other indigenous peoples, including the Haida, but at the turn of the 19th century, they came into contact with a group that would threaten their relationship with the land: Russian traders seeking to establish a footprint on the North American continent.” Read full story here.
Holocaust Memorial Day
“Holocaust Memorial Day serves as an annual reminder in the UK to pause and engage with remembering the Shoah. This year it is more important than ever before, but at the same time we must reflect on the fact that no single day of commemoration can ever be truly sufficient.” Read full story here.
COVID Road Trip USA
“Laid off from her job because of COVID-19 cutbacks, Michelle Fishburne began to travel the country, interviewing people from all walks of life. She calls her oral history project “Who We Are Now,” and her stories can be found at whowearenow.us.
Cambodian Oral History
“The project is the brainchild of Professor Dana Bourgerie, who travelled to Cambodia to initially study the dialects of the Chinese diaspora in the country in 2014. While conducting preliminary research, he realised many of his interview subjects didn’t know their family histories.” Read more about the project here.
Saudi Oral History
“RIYADH: From one generation to another, history is told and retold. But with time, large fragments are lost, so a Riyadh-based research center is helping preserve some of Saudi Arabia’s most important historical facts.
The earliest forms of storytelling for many cultures were primarily oral, combined with gestures and expressions, and at times, even drawings and paintings. With time these stories differ, their essence forgotten and countless tales lost through time. In recognition of the beauty of this dying art, the King Abdul Aziz Foundation for Research and Archives (Darah) has upgraded its work to record and preserve oral accounts of Saudi Arabian history and make them accessible to researchers.” Read full story here.