Dr. Katie Singer

Contextualizes oral history narratives and personal stories to foreground stories of African-American history and life.
https://katie-singer.com/
Katie Singer has a Ph.D. in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University where she taught writing, literature, and African-American studies for ten years. Subsequently, Singer taught for two years at Bard High School Early College in Newark, NJ and then as faculty at Rutgers University-Newark in the departments of history, Africana/African-American Studies and American studies. She relocated to California in 2020 where she does independent reasearch and adjunct teaching, while also coaching boxing classes at Everybody Gym in Los Angeles.Dr. Singer has presented at conferences, in the U.S. and abroad, upon topics that include preservation, oral history, racial justice, African-American literature, and African-American historical commemoration. Her book on the Great Migration through the oral histories of Newark's Krueger-Scott African-American Oral History Project -- Alien Soil -- is due out August 2024 with Rutgers University Press. She has also co-authored the memoir of a previously incarcerated writer, presently under contract with Lived Places Publishing.Singer's focus on oral histories tends towards collections already created. The art and science of listening to already-recorded interviews is central to her thinking surrounding the field. As a white scholar whose work is in African-American studies, oral histories allow her to amplify the voices of African Americans while she performs the background work of framing and contextualizing the stories. She is presently working on a memoir, told through the framework of her ongoing religious journey.

Experience

Author, Alien Soil: Oral Histories of Great Migration Newark (forthcoming, Rutgers University Press) Facilitator, Black History: Oral History and the Retelling of a Story,Union Public Library community workshop Director/Oral Historian, 120th Anniversary Oral History Video Collection, First Baptist Church of Madison, Audio Editor and Indexer, Krueger-Scott Oral History Project, Rutgers University-Newark; utilized Interclipper software to create finding Urban Affairs Association presentation, What Ordinary People Can Teach Us: Oral Histories of Employment Discrimination Against African Americans

Services

African-American Studies, African-American History, The Underground Railroad, African- American Literature, Digital Urban and Public History, U.S. History, The History of Newark and Los Angeles, Urban History through Oral History, American Studies, online and classroom Writing, Creative Writing: Fiction, College Writing, Research Writing on Sports, African Americans, Gender, Poetry, Archival Cataloging, Activism, Curriculum writing/facilitating, research skills, commitment to teaching - academic and community, oral history project manager.

Languages

Regions Available for Work

Other Regions: California|| Los Angeles county specifcially. Often on East coast|| available to work in New York|| New Jersey|| and Washington|| DC.

Specialty

Areas of expertise include:African-American history; Urban studies; the Great Migration Era; Women and activism; Black Literature

Purpose of Contact

  • I am available to answer questions, or provide mentorship to other oral historians
  • I am available for hire - as an oral historian, consultant, presenter, educator, or related services
  • I am available to collaborate - on research, community projects, artistic endeavors, or other joint undertakings with peers
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