June 1, 2022
The Oral History Association announces the recipients of eleven mini grants, funded by an $825,000 grant from the NEH American Rescue Plan.
In October 2021 the Oral History Association was awarded $825,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grantmaking [Funding Opportunity Number: 20210513-ARPG]. Oral historians from communities which have been historically marginalized in the field (such as Indigenous peoples, people of color, people with disabilities, and working class people) were particularly invited to apply. Applicants were encouraged to propose projects grounded in partnerships with communities and organizations.
We allocated $60,000 of this money for mini-grants to support research that will lead to greater equity and inclusion in the field of oral history.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Charles Chavis and Jack Del Nunzio; Anna Kaplan; Alexandra Lacey, María Velázquez, Brett Halperin, Luis Trujillo; Timi Reedy and Jocelyn Lee; Sarah Dziedzic; Ashby Haywood and Dartricia Rollins; Kaila Austin; Troy Gaston, Colette Payne, and Maria Moon; Hongyan Yang; Adam Fracchia; and Andre L. Taylor.
Recipients will be
- developing reparative and anti-racist oral history practices through work on lynching in Maryland,
- telling the story of Black women’s labors in early institutional oral history projects/programs,
- documenting the voices and experiences of oral historians in Kentucky and Central Appalachia,
- refining methodologies to balance narrator privacy and the desire to amplify experiences in activist oral history work
- researching barriers to doing oral history faced by people directly impacted by incarceration
- producing and activating knowledge about the experiences of oral history practitioners as workers
- exploring recipes and food stories as repositories of African American family history
- learning with reproductive justice advocates about how to use oral histories for organizing
- understanding and supporting the role of “natural historians” in Black communities
- using family archives and architectural history to create place-based oral histories
- training young people to work at the intersection of oral history and archaeology to unearth urban histories
Oral historians from communities which have been historically marginalized in the field (such as Indigenous peoples, people of color, people with disabilities, and working class people) were particularly invited to apply. Applicants were encouraged to propose projects grounded in partnerships with communities and organizations, and project partners include:
- The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project
- The University of Kentucky Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History
- Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- Organization of Chinese Americans-Wisconsin
- The National Public Housing Museum
- The Association for the Study of African American Life and History
- Spelman College Archives
- Southern Foodways Alliance
Full bios and project descriptions are available at https://oralhistory.org/oha-neh-mini-grant-recipients/.
Taken together, these projects will make significant contributions and lead to greater equity and inclusion in the field of oral history through broadening our methodologies, rewriting our histories, and critically examining barriers to participation in oral history work.
We especially thank the selection committee – Paul Ortiz, Sara Sinclair, Dao Tran, Brian Greenwald, Robert Luckett, Marie Cochran, Daisy Herrera – for their hard work evaluating the many compelling applications received.
Louis Kyriakoudes, Director of The Albert Gore Research Center & Professor of History at Middle Tennessee State University and Co-Executive Director of OHA, and Amy Starecheski, Director of the Columbia University Oral History Master of Arts Program and 2021-22 President of the OHA, serve as Co-Principal Investigators on the grant. Kelly Elaine Navies, Oral Historian at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and First Vice-President of OHA, chaired the selection committee and will be advising grantees.
As a part of this funding series, OHA also awarded eleven year long fellowships: https://oralhistory.org/2022/04/04/oha-neh-fellowship-winners/.
The Oral History Association is thrilled to have this opportunity to provide support for oral historians while also implementing our 2020 strategic plan, which centers on making our field inclusive and equitable through building an organization which
- is a transparent, inclusive, responsive, and valued resource with a growing body of diverse leaders and practitioners.
- is a nationally and internationally recognized advocate for oral history and a champion for the development and well-being of oral history practitioners and programs.
- develops relevant, accessible, and innovative programming that enhances practitioners’ ability to do meaningful oral history work.
Contacts:
Louis Kyriakoudes, Louis.Kyriakoudes@mtsu.edu 615-898-2633
Kelly Navies, NaviesK@si.edu
Amy Starecheski, aas39@columbia.edu 212-851-4395
