Ellen Brooks

BrooksBabbles
After graduating from the Oral History Master of Arts program at Columbia University, I served as the Oral Historian for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum (2013-2018) and then the Oral Historian for the State Archives of North Carolina (January 2019 - August 2020). I began my career as a freelance contractor and consultant in 2020 and am currently based in Chicago. I am motivated by storytelling and community building both personally and professionally. I am committed to work that prioritizes the documentation of unheard and underrepresented stories, and projects and programs that increase accessibility to those stories. I enjoy welcoming new voices into the oral history space, both practitioners and narrators, and I am an advocate for networking and mentorship. As such, I co-founded and previously chaired the Oral History Association's Emerging Professionals Committee and developed one of OHA's mentor programs. These days I am excited to continue to explore podcasting and other creative media projects. I'm especially interested in working with existing oral history and archival collections to highlight their value and promote their use. For any project that I work on, I bring not only my professional expertise but also empathy, passion, transparency, and creativity

Experience

After graduating from the Oral History Master of Arts program at Columbia University, I served as the Oral Historian for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum (2013-2018) and then the Oral Historian for the State Archives of North Carolina (January 2019 - August 2020). I began my career as a freelance contractor and consultant in 2020.

Services

Oral History & Audio Projects (Research, Interviewing, Transcription, Editing, Post-interview production and preservation), Workshops & Training (oral history methodology and practice, digital archiving, community memory, the value of mentorship), Consulting (project design, project management, grant proposals, other aspects of oral history or oral history-adjacent work)

Purpose of Contact

  • 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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