Unheard Voices: Critical Perspectives on Oral History | Workshop

Two-day workshop (28 and 29 March from 14.00-17.00) with dr. Rose Mary Allen, following the lecture on March 27: https://www.facebook.com/events/269311340164269/.

Researchers are often confronted with the fact that certain key information is not in written form but stored in people’s memories. This is particularly the case in societies where written information represents colonial or other dominant views while alternative views are silenced. Oral history is a technique for recovering silenced or ignored perspectives as well as for recollecting information about the more recent past that combines anthropology, history, storytelling and journalism. Someone who does oral history research is both a listener and an archivist and is involved in interviewing individuals about their lives, experiences and memories, usually focused on a specific topic. Oral histories, the results of this technique, offer a unique way to learn about past events and about the people that experienced or played important roles in those events.

In this workshop, participants will look at oral history research findings, issues around reliability, transcription, interpretation and analysis.

Guest Scholar:
Dr. Rose Mary Allen is a cultural anthropologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Curaçao dr. Moises da Costa Gomez. She is a recipient of a knighthood in the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Netherlands, the Cola Debrot award as well as the Boeli van Leeuwenprijs for her contribution to and achievement in the sciences. Publications include ‘Di Ki Manera’: A Social History of Afro-Curaçaoans, 1863–1917 (2007); and “The Oral History of Slavery, Afro-Curaçaoan Memory, and Self-Definition: A Caribbean Perspective on the 300th Anniversary of the Treaty of Utrecht,” In: Sargasso: Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language, & Culture I & II (2014): 135-152.

Venue: Atria – Institute for Gender Equality and Women’s History
Vijzelstraat 20, 1017 HK Amsterdam

Credits: RMA Students can acquire 2 EC if they attend all events, complete the readings and write an assignment related to the topic of the workshop.

Registrations: Please email Eloe Kingma at nica-fgw@uva.nl. Be sure to specify your home institution and programme.

If you are not an RMA student and you would like to attend this event, please send an e-mail to pr@atria.nl. Please note that places are limited.

Lecture and subsequent workshops are organised by the UvA (ACGS, ASCA, NICA and ARC-GS).

Image courtesy of Jermain Ostiana at https://triunfodisablika.wordpress.com/2011/10/