June 23-25, 2026
The Oral History Association will host a virtual three-day symposium on trauma-informed interviewing, reckoning, and beyond, June 23, 24 and 25, 2026. The first day of the symposium will focus on trauma informed interview methodology, including project design, community engagement, and interview techniques. The second day will explore reckoning with ethical issues around oral history projects centered on trauma, including resiliency, healing and accountability. The final day will highlight questions about what happens after the interviews are completed, including strategies for what comes next, impact on communities, narrators, and interviewers, and using public history to engage a wide audience.
Key questions that will be addressed include: How do we work reciprocally with communities? How do we navigate insider/outsider dynamics? How soon is too soon to do a project? How do we avoid reducing people to their traumas and treating their stories as monoliths? How can we respect the cultural specificities of how traumas manifest in different communities? What are our responsibilities to narrators versus their narratives? How do we mobilize these stories for policy change and other forms of justice?
Symposium co-chairs, Shanna Farrell, Anna Sheftel, and Francine D. Spang-Willis, along with symposium committee members, will invite a curated selection of presenters to speak about their oral history work as it relates to these three overarching topics.
Symposium Program Committee Members:
Crystal Mun-Hye Baik
Ricia Chansky
Elena Foulis
Kelly Elaine Navies
Abigail Perkiss
Sara Sinclair
Registration Information and Rates (USD)
Participants can register for the symposium at any time, including during and after the event. Registration will provide you with both Zoom links for the live program, as well as YouTube recording links shortly after the event which will be accessible into perpetuity. In addition, all OHA members will be able to access the recordings via the Member Site beginning in January 2027.
Member Rates
- OHA Member with Institutional Support — $100
- OHA Independent Practitioner / Emerging Professional Member — $50
- OHA Life Members / Student / Retirees / Underemployed — $25
Non-Member Rates
- Institutional Support — $150
- Independent Practitioners — $100
- Student / Retirees / Underemployed — $50
Institutions
- Non-Partner Member Institution — $350
- Partner Member Institution— $250