Blog

Australian Journalists Project

“The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (the journalist’s union) estimates up to 5,000 Australian journalists have left the industry over the past decade. The New Beats study has been charting what happened to journalists after they left, including through regular surveys. In partnership with the National Library of Australia, we have also conducted “whole-of-life” interviews with close to 60 journalists for the library’s oral history collection. ‘Upheaval: Disrupted Lives in Journalism‘, tells their story. It aims to give a picture of what it was like to work in journalism when the media had resources and a lot of influence and then what happened as disruption began in earnest during the mid-2000s.” Read full story here.

Let the Record Show

“Sarah Schulman’s superlative new book, “Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York, 1987-1993,” about AIDS activism during a time when the disease was blotting out queer communities in the US. The 700-some-page tome is a bracing addition to an ongoing field of research and testimony on AIDS history, a corrective to previous accounts that have elevated some perspectives over others and latched onto only a handful of figures.” Read the full story about the book here and listen to an interview with the author here.

Fire Lookouts Project

“When Beth Hodder was asked in 2016 to help preserve the living history of those who staffed the fire lookouts in Northwest Montana, she had no idea of the great journey that was ahead of her. As a board member of the Northwest Montana Lookout Association, Hodder already was volunteering her time to help preserve the aging fire lookout towers on mountaintops around the area, but this new project provided a chance to help preserve their history in a different way. Read full story here and listen to the interviews here.

Best Oral History Books

“Oral history occupies a strange niche in literature. Authors of oral histories are often presenting stories they have collected directly from others, and sometimes don’t include their own voice at all. Many oral historians work to provide a pedestal for voices that wouldn’t otherwise be heard at all. These collections are rarely about the name on the front cover.” Read full story with list of books here.

U.S. House of Representatives Oral History Project

“Learn about the history of the U.S. House of Representatives through the perspectives of those who lived it. The oral history program provides a vivid picture of the inner workings of Congress during some of the most influential times in our country’s modern history. These interviews discuss the people, events, institutions, and objects of the ever-evolving House of Representatives.” See more here.

More than just a podcast

“Podcasts have soared in popularity in recent years, and now University of Texas students are getting into the act. Honors College freshmen have collaborated to create podcasts for Storytelling Across Media, a course taught by Honors College lecturer Amy Hauck.

The mission of the course is to “explore the literary legacy of storytelling as a way to actualize identity, preserve history, provide social testimony, cultivate empathy, encourage social responsibility, and generate knowledge through engaging and sharing narrative.”

The three cohorts that have taken the course have engaged in multifaceted ways to study fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and multimedia. However, the primary emphasis was given to oral history as they explored the power of narrative.” Read more here which includes a link to the resulting podcasts.