Shaking the Family Tree: Oral History, Family History, Insider Interviews, and Ancestral Memory

Dates: Friday, March 1 – Sunday, March 3, 2024
Location: Online via Zoom
Instructors: Suzanne Snider, zavé martohardjono (they/them), Saturday, March 2

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.

This workshop is a good fit for novices or advanced oral historians embarking on a family history project, broadly defined—or for those exploring the nuances of “insider” interviews. Also welcome: those working on projects about constructed families or constellations of people intimately related. Special topics: ethics, memory loss, individual and collective memory, song collection. 

For more information, click here.

Scroll to Top