OHA News

Registration is open for the 2016 Oral History Association annual meeting! The 2016 meeting will capture the spirit of the first National Colloquium on Oral History in 1966 by introducing lively theoretical and methodological discussion space, examining current and ongoing work, as well as looking toward the future of the field. The theme of “OHA@50: Traditions, Transitions […]

Follow our weekly series, Throwback Thursday, designed to help celebrate 50 years of OHA. We’ll profile a year in the life of the organization each week with photos, logos, and highlights taken from the Oral History Association Newsletter. We welcome your memories, photos, and comments at oha@gsu.edu. OHA in 1979… JFK Library, dedicated in 1979  OHA President Moss

Looking forward to the 2016 Annual Meeting By Sarah Milligan and Sady Sullivan OHA Program Co-Chairs As you surely know by now, 2016 is the 50th anniversary for the Oral History Association.  The 2016 annual meeting will capture the spirit of the first National Colloquium on Oral History in 1966 by introducing lively theoretical and

By Anne Valk, Williams College The extraordinary election season that we are currently enduring has given me many reasons to contemplate the relationship between history and memory.  A large field of candidates is rapidly winnowing to a handful albeit with many surprises along the way.  What seemed like a foregone conclusion last year — a

By Annie Valk, OHA President The tragic loss of our executive director and good friend Cliff Kuhn in 2015 was a blow to the OHA family.  As the organization’s first executive director, Cliff worked tirelessly with leadership and members to ensure the success of OHA into the future. As we move forward with important initiatives,

The Oral History Association has formed a committee to begin the search for an institutional home for its executive office beginning in early 2018.  As part of this process, the committee has also been charged with finding a new executive director to serve as its principal administrator. Georgia State University will house OHA and Kristine

By Tony Macaluso, Director of Syndication WFMT Radio Network & The Studs Terkel Radio Archive Studs Terkel is best known in the world of oral history for his many curiosity-driven books (Working, Hard Times, The Good War, Race) that helped popularize oral history among the general public starting in the 1970s. Those wildly influential books

OHA members will elect a new first vice president and a new OHA Council member as well as three members of the OHA Nominating Committee in online voting this summer. Members will receive an email link in July with instructions for online voting until early September. Paper ballots will not be mailed to members. Choices

By Mary Larson, Chair 50th Anniversary Task Force  OHA will be celebrating its semi-centennial at our Long Beach meeting this fall, and the 50th Anniversary Task Force is working hard to ensure that there will be a wide range of activities and conference sessions presented as part of the festivities. Programming isn’t the task force’s

What began in 1969 with an interview with a colleague of legendary American composer Charles Ives has morphed into Yale University’s Oral History of American Music archive, with more than 2,600 interviews with leading lights of 20th and 21st century American music. The story of the archive and its evolution was featured recently in Yale

Big news for OHA in 1975 was raising membership dues to $10, up from $7.50 the previous year, equivalent to a whopping $36.23 in today’s dollars. A 1974 issue of the OHA Newsletter also recounted a memorable snafu at that year’s annual meeting: Oral historians who attended the ninth annual OHA Colloquium at Grant Teton