Making Histories Together, the 2023 annual conference of the Oral History Society in partnership with Nottingham Trent University
Friday 23rd & Saturday 24th June 2023 (IN-PERSON/HYBRID)
Nottingham Trent University, Newton building, Burton St, Nottingham NG1 4BU
PLENARY SPEAKERS
Anna Sheftel and Stacey Zembrzycki, authors of Oral History Off the Record
Graham Smith, leader of Newcastle University’s Oral History Unit and Collective
Rob Perks, editor of the Oral History Reader
Cynthia Brown, former coordinator of the Society’s Oral History Network
Joanna Bornat, long-standing Oral History Journal editor
CALL FOR PAPERS
The 2023 Oral History Society’s annual conference will be hosted at Nottingham Trent University in partnership with the NTU-wide oral history network and the East Midlands Oral History Archive. The event coincides with the Society’s 50th anniversary and returns to the East Midlands where it was first established in 1973. The theme of the conference is “Making histories together”.
Co-creation and collaborative dialogue are at the heart of oral history, and the relationships between the interviewer and interviewee can be as fruitful and successful as they can be complex and difficult. Through the dynamic, evolving exchange of questions and responses, there is the potential for interviewer and narrator to ‘share power’ and ownership of the interview. Equally oral history lends itself to partnership working, across disciplines and sectors, across age groups and specialisms, across cultures and skill-sets. What are the benefits and challenges of collaborative oral history work, both within the interview encounter and within whole projects? What happens when the interview relationship breaks down or when partnerships are unsuccessful? These challenging questions reveal much about the collaborative potential and dilemmas of conducting oral history. Collaboration in the planning, collection, analysis, and dissemination of oral histories as a means of democratising historical research has become a common aspect of doing oral history work across settings and disciplines. This conference aims to explore the knotty issues of collaboration, power and partnership working in oral history.
PROPOSALS
The deadline for submission of proposals is Friday 6th January 2023. For more details see the attached PDF or go to: www.ohs.org.uk/conferences.
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