Ask an Oral Historian: Fundraising for Oral History
Ask an Oral Historian is a monthly series with Fanny García and invited guest speakers about the practice of ethical storytelling.
Join us on Thursday, September 24th at 3 pm EST for the next installment of Ask an Oral Historian as we turn our attention to funding the work that makes oral histories possible.
Invited speaker Kate Garrett joins the conversation to unpack the current philanthropic landscape for oral history projects, from shrinking grant pools to shifting funder priorities.
We'll dig into the real challenges practitioners face when seeking support, and share practical strategies for building sustainable fundraising approaches.
Come with your questions, whether you're launching your first project or looking to diversify funding for established work.
Ask an Oral Historian: Interviewing Tips & Techniques
Ask an Oral Historian is a monthly series with Fanny García and invited guest speakers about the practice of ethical storytelling.
Join us on Thursday, October 22nd at 3 pm EST for an insightful session on interviewing tips and techniques designed to elevate your storytelling practice! We'll dive deep into trauma-informed interviewing, exploring not just the "what" but the "why" behind creating a safe, empowering space for narrators to share their truth.
From life histories to focused topical conversations, we'll unpack a variety of interviewing styles and help you discover which approach resonates best with your unique situation.
Whether you're crafting the perfect open-ended question or mastering the art of the thoughtful follow-up, this session will equip you with practical tools and fresh perspectives. It's not just about asking questions, it's about building trust, one conversation at a time.
This session is online and is not recorded. We look forward to learning with you!
Ask an Oral Historian: The Belfast Project
Ask an Oral Historian is a monthly series with Fanny García and invited guest speakers about the practice of ethical storytelling.
Ask an Oral Historian presents a conversation about The Belfast Project, a Boston College oral history of Northern Ireland's Troubles that was subpoenaed by the U.S. Department of Justice despite promises that narrators' recordings would remain sealed for their lifetimes.
Joined by Troy Reeves, the Oral Historian at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we'll dig into what this case revealed about the gap between what we promise narrators and what the law actually protects, and its lasting impact on how oral historians and archivists approach the stewardship of sensitive collections.
Ask an Oral Historian: Literary Oral History
Did you know that oral history has a long life in popular literature, separate from its academic history?
Zora Neale Hurston collected Black folklore in the rural South. Gertrude Stein worked everyday speech into her prose. Studs Terkel built his career on tape-recorded interviews with working people. Nell Irvin Painter has used testimony to recover history the written record left out!
Great artists and writers have been using oral history as art and the art in oral history to create incredible literary works.
If you are curious to learn more, join the August session of Ask an Oral Historian on Thursday, August 27th at 3 pm EST for a conversation on Literary Oral History with invited speaker Cameron Vanderscoff, who has worked on several literary oral history projects, including a book composed from interviews he and contributing editor Lynn Lewis conducted with Jean Rice, advocate for the homeless in New York City and beyond.
We'll explore questions of art in oral history and oral history as art, and what this means for understanding and amplifying the social potential, eloquence, and power of this practice.
This event is online via zoom and will not be recorded.
Story and Archive: A Two-Day Oral History Workshop
Join us for a two-session workshop on oral history and archives on Friday, August 7th at 1 pm EST and/or Thursday, August 13th at 6 pm EST. This event is in-person at Prime Produce in NYC.
Every community has stories that deserve to be heard and preserved. This two-day workshop covers the full arc of an oral history project, from designing your blueprint to conducting trauma-informed interviews. Day one is foundations and project design. Day two is interviewing practice, question design, and working with difficult or sensitive material.
Hosted by Natalie Milbrodt, University Archivist for CUNY and founder of Queens Memory at Queens Public Library and Fanny García, an independent oral historian with a decade of experience running impactful human rights focused projects. No prior experience required!
This workshop will take place in-person at Prime Produce, 424 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019. You have the option to register for only one day or both! $35 for one single session, or $55 for both!
BOOK TALK: Leave If You Can
Join Narratives in Practice on Thursday, August 20th at 5:30 pm EST for a conversation with Amelia Frank-Vitale about her book, Leave If You Can: Migration and Violence in Bordered Worlds.
Amelia Frank-Vitale spent years in Honduras with people at various points of deportation, return, and migration. Leave If You Can is an ethnography of young Honduran men who keep moving despite being deported, often more than once. Frank-Vitale's argument is precise: deportation does not stop migration, it produces more of it. Join us for a generative conversation that centers the ethnographic methodologies behind this work and what they reveal about how stories of migration are gathered, held, and told. This is a free and in-person event in Downtown New York City. Location details will be shared after registration is complete.
