Oral History Centre
On January 14th, the Oral History Centre began a new run of its Introduction to Oral History workshop series. A series of three classes, the workshops includes an Introduction to the practice of oral history, and instruction on digital audio recording, project organization and transcription. It is organized by Kimberley Moore (Program Assistant), and co-facilitated by her, Kent Davies, and Allison Penner. This is the fourth time the Centre has offered the series since its initial launch in January 2014, and each time registration has been full!
The OHC’s Introduction to Oral History workshop is designed to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to conduct a successful oral history project by teaching both the practice and philosophy of oral history, including: what makes oral history unique; how to design a project; the technical skills needed to make quality audio recordings; and how to create complementary text documents that will ensure your project is organized, archivable, and useful to future researchers. The Centre is planning to hold another series in April. If you are interested, be sure to sign up soon! Space for each workshop is limited.
The series is open to the public and to date participants have come from both corporate and private spheres and have included individuals conducting family histories, members of community organizations, museums, libraries, archives, and other areas of public service, as well as university faculty and students. The Centre has also arranged specialized workshops for organizations undertaking group projects.
Moore says “We are thrilled to have such a variety of people joining us for these workshops. The greater the diversity of individuals trained will result in not only a rich fabric of histories collected, but will help extend the recognition and value of oral history practice. It’s wonderful the workshops have been so successful.”
The Oral History Centre at the University of Winnipeg strives to become a national leader and global innovator in developing excellence in oral history teaching, research, and collaborative community development. In doing so, the Oral History Centre promotes oral history as a means of democratizing history and working towards social justice and human rights in a globalizing world.
The OHC was established in 2012 and is an innovative, dynamic component of the University’s H. Sanford Riley Centre for Canadian History. The Oral History Centre supports the University’s vision and priorities of accessibility, community outreach, and capacity building. It strengthens the University’s research capacities and moves research, teaching, and community building forward through interdisciplinary collaboration. It provides training, equipment, facilities, technical support, and networking for faculty, student, and community researchers and learners.
The Oral History Centre has been made possible by the generosity of donors, with special thanks to Garry Leach, Sandy Riley, Pollard Banknote, Jim Burns, Dick Bonnycastle, Colleen Suche and Jim Carr. The OHC and the University of Winnipeg Foundation is thankful to all who donate to the Oral History Centre. Your gifts help the University and Centre record and democratize history, as well as support invaluable faculty and student research.
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