OHS Conference 2009
HEARING VOICE IN ORAL HISTORY
Oral History Society Conference
... ... in association with the Scottish Oral History Group, Scottish Oral History Centre at the University of Strathclyde, UHI Millennium Institute, Scottish Working Peoples’ History Trust, Aberdeen & Region Oral History Association
3-4 July 2009
University of Strathclyde, Glasgow
This landmark event will provide the opportunity to explore that most essential aspect of oral history: Voice
Oral history is spoken history. The core evidence we gather is the voice, the core vehicle of the evidence we collect is the voice. Later, typically, summaries and transcripts appear, analyses are written, outcomes in various forms are produced. But at the start is the voice, the original vehicle for the transfer of evidence from human memory to the world. We have entered a period of great change in the technical nature of gathering, processing and archiving oral history, of archiving the voice. It is timely, therefore, for the OHS to bring a focus onto this essential aspect of the work we all do, to centre-stage the instrument and the notion of voice around which all our research, interviewing and technical expertise revolve, to look at what we are doing in terms of voice, voices, the voice. It is appropriate to examine in our oral history projects what information and evidence we are gathering as voice that might not be revealed in transcript and other forms of documentation.
Proposals are invited on any of the following themes:
THEME ONE: The nature of voice as evidence in oral history and its relation to period, culture and place. Voice as data, music, language, performance, political expression, literature, spoken text, memory, instrument, poetry, primary source. Voice and the mediation of speech, dialect, accent, tone, silence.
THEME TWO: Hearing voice in community through oral history. The voice and voices of communities, voice as an expression of being within and being without; voice in storytelling; voice and disability; voice and gender; voice and ethnicity; voice and environment; voice and reminiscence. Voice in the museum. Voice and power; voice and tradition.
THEME THREE: Voice in oral history in the age of new technology. The implications of digitisation and dissemination of the voice through the internet and other digital media; rights and ownership of voice in the digital age; voice analysis; the mechanics of voice; voice and forensics; voice and translation; voice and the public media.
Please send proposals of 200-250 words, for talks or presentations of 20 minutes, to oralhistory09@strath.ac.uk by 5 January 2009.
For further information see http://oralhistory2009.pbwiki.com