THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL This two-day hands-on workshop––open to all––is based on our popular 10-day intensive, covering oral history theory, method and practice. Over the course of the two-day workshop, we'll address interview techniques, recording tutorials, ethics, memory, annotation and experimental outcomes. Read More…

Come all ye budding oral historians, radio documentarians, writers, filmmakers, media advocates, and photographers who wish to make use of oral history in your practices. This immersive upstate New York workshop is a rigorous introduction to the field of oral history. Read more here…

This workshop is designed for educators who want to bring oral history into their classrooms and learning spaces. We’ll begin with a rigorous introduction to oral history theory, methods and practice before reviewing existing curricula and projects as a jumping off place to design our own curricula/projects. Read more here…

Oral history and journalism were once described as "kissing cousins" by journalist Mark Feldstein, but how, exactly are they related? What lives at the intersection of these two sets of best practices, and how does the ambidextrous oral history-journalist trouble though moments when the practices diverge?

Working with oral history values/strategies alongside journalistic constraints can give rise to a new sensibility or sensibilities. We'll use oral history exercises/ training together with our collective momentum as reporters, documentarians and longform nonfiction writers to encourage more curiosity, play, collaboration and innovation without compromising rigor or loyalty to our respective realms. Sessions will take the forms of mini-presentations, interactive exercises, case studies, Read more here . . .

In this three-and-a-half day workshop, participants will learn the tools and techniques of oral history and consider together the many possible uses for oral history in our Hudson area communities: family/ history, community organizing, creating counternarratives, intergenerational relationship-building and envisioning collective futures.  Read more here…

Come all ye budding oral historians, radio documentarians, writers, filmmakers, media advocates, and photographers who wish to make use of oral history in your practices. This immersive upstate New York workshop is a rigorous introduction to the field of oral history. Read more here…

For many of us, family is the obvious—and sometimes most complicated—place to start our work as oral historians. In this workshop, participants will learn how to use oral history to document and preserve their family stories. We’ll discuss common challenges: convincing your family to participate, delving into sensitive subjects and secrets, and working with interviewees who may suffer from memory loss. We’ll also discuss the potential for oral history to repair and transform relationships. Read more here…

Project Design is a dynamic phase of oral history practice, giving oral historians a chance to discipline their thinking, address ethical challenges, identify sites for potential collaboration, assess their resources, define “success,” and brainstorm potential future uses beyond the archive. Read more here…

Oral history excels at complicating the narrative. How can we preserve and deliver these complex narratives when moving from speech to print? How can we make adequate space for our narrators’ voices and our own (authorial) voice? What does it mean to write in first person with someone else’s words? What is an oral history book? Read more here…

This two-day hands-on workshop––open to all––is based on our popular 10-day intensive, covering oral history theory, method and practice. Over the course of the two-day workshop, we'll address interview techniques, recording tutorials, ethics, memory, annotation and experimental outcomes. Read more…

Oral History Summer School is back in session for our second Oral History Intensive in Residence at Sylvan Motor Lodge. Come all ye budding oral historians, media makers, advocates and others who wish to make of use of oral history in your practices. This immersive upstate New York workshop is a rigorous introduction to the field of oral history. Over the course of 4 days, we’ll cover interview techniques, project design, and recording tutorials, plus sessions dedicated to ethics, trauma, advocacy, archives, and other related topics. Read more…

Oral History Summer School is back in session—this time in Portland, ME—at Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. Come all ye budding oral historians, media makers, advocates and others who wish to make of use of oral history in your practices. This immersive upstate New York workshop is a rigorous introduction to the field of oral history. Over the course of 4 days, we’ll cover interview techniques, project design, and recording tutorials, plus sessions dedicated to ethics, trauma, advocacy, archives, and other related topics. Read more…

Oral History Summer School is back in session with our first in-person workshop since the pandemic. Come all ye budding oral historians, media makers, advocates and others who wish to make of use of oral history in your practices. This immersive upstate New York workshop is a rigorous introduction to the field of oral history. Over the course of 4 days, we’ll cover interview techniques, project design, and recording tutorials, plus sessions dedicated to ethics, trauma, advocacy, archives, and other related topics. Read more…

In this specialized Project Design workshop, OHSS director and founder Suzanne Snider will train a project team from Middlebury College and Kolot Chayeinu for an oral history project of Kolot Chayeinu, a non-denominational Jewish congregation in Brooklyn, NY. This day-long training includes mini-presentations, conversation, small group exercises, and supportive “lab time” during which participants will work with Project Design prompts and workshop their ideas-in-progress for feedback. Read more…

This two-day hands-on workshop––open to all––is based on our popular 10-day intensive, covering oral history theory, method and practice. Over the course of the two-day workshop, we'll address interview techniques, recording tutorials, ethics, memory, annotation and experimental outcomes. Read More…

This two-day hands-on workshop––open to all––is based on our popular 10-day intensive, covering oral history theory, method and practice. Over the course of the two-day workshop, we'll address interview techniques, recording tutorials, ethics, memory, annotation and experimental outcomes. Read More…

This mini-intensive is based on our popular foundational workshop––covering oral history theory, methods and practice––but is designed more specifically to support training among colleagues and collaborators who wish to directly apply the training during the workshop, and to establish networks among organizations approaching common questions. Read more…