In the twentieth century, 40 to 60 million defenseless people were massacred in episodes of genocide. The 21st century is not faring much better, with mass murder ongoing e.g. in Myanmar and Syria. Many of these cases have been studied well, both in detailed case studies and in comparative perspectives, but studying mass murder is no picnic. Scholars have also examined how conducting research, including ethnographic fieldwork, archival investigation, and oral history interviews, can affect the researcher in profound ways. Among a broader set of difficulties that obstruct research on this wretched subject, two stand out in particular: political constraints and psychological attrition. For full story click here.
Category: Uncategorized
Biological Warfare Site
During World War II, the Japanese army carried out biological warfare against thousands of Chinese victims. Now, nearly three-quarters of a century later, a Japanese group has come to China to visit a former site of some of those atrocities. For full story click here.
Brothers 4 Recovery
Storytelling has long been a way of passing on culture and traditions, but for two Indigenous men it has become a way of spreading the message that you can recover from devastating addiction and rebuild your life. Full story here.
BBC Free Sound Effects
There can be few organisations that have used more sound effects than the BBC, so there’s bound to be great interest in the news that the corporation has now made more than 16,000 of its FX available for free download. Full story with link here.
United Nations Library
United Nations has a digital library website which can be accessed here.
StoryCorps explained
All the work that the StoryCorps mobile tour does happens in a parked trailer. The recording, photos, editing and archiving all occur in an Airstream trailer, customized to include office space, a photo space and a recording studio. The trailer traverses the country over the course of the year, stopping in big cities and tiny towns, all to record and archive the voices of Americans today. See full story here.
Vietnam War (USA)
American History TV continues its five-week series of interviews with Vietnam War veterans. The Witness to War Foundation conducted these interviews. See the interviews here.
Podcasting
Podcasting is a growing phenomenon in Australia. Although radio is still the dominant audio platform (88% of Australians aged 12+ having listened to AM/FM/DAB+ in the last week, up from 85% and outpacing the U.S.’s 65%), more and more people are turning to podcasts. Read more here.
Astronaut Alan Bean Dies
“US astronaut Alan Bean, who walked on the moon in 1969 during the Apollo 12 mission and commanded a crew on the Skylab space station in 1973 before giving up his career to become a full-time painter, has died.” Read full story here.
Collecting recipes with stories
“Researchers at the University of Winnipeg are hitting the road this summer in a new food truck, inviting Manitobans to hop on board, cook family recipes and be interviewed about the process. “We have people coming aboard the food truck to cook a dish that has meaning to them, and to interview them about their life stories. And we’re also going off the food truck and interviewing business owners and workers of long-standing food production facilities and food businesses,” said Sarah Story, an archivist involved with the Manitoba Food History Project.” A great idea for an oral history project. See full story here.