In October 2018, the Oral History Association will be gathering in Montreal for their annual conference.  CNHH member, Dr. Isabel Campbell, will be presenting a paper.  In addition, Dr. Campbell introduced the Network to the associated oral history and multimedia project presented in association with the OHA and Oral History at Concordia University.  Any member interested should visit the OHA website for information on their annual conference (October 2018 @ Concordia University, Montreal QC) or the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University for information on the multimedia project.  Likewise, the CNHH Event posting may be found here.

The program for this exhibition of the COHDS Research Centre at Concordia may be found here.

We live in troubled times. Millions are being displaced from their homes. Refugees and other minorities are facing intense Islamophobia and racism. Guns are killing our children. Economic inequality is growing. People are being left-behind. We are living the consequences of empire and settler-colonialism. The future of our planet is at stake.

Now more than ever, it is easy to think that history belongs to political and economic elites. These are the voices that we hear. But history inhabits each of us. Ordinary people live extraordinary lives and they have much to teach us. By going public with their stories, their extraordinary lives break the silence and move us to further social change.

Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling is proud to present a rich tapestry of research-creation projects this October. This has been timed to coincide with the US Oral History Association conference, when more than 600 oral historians from around the world will be converging on Montreal for four days.

These public projects bring oral history to the streets. They engage with personal story, and our troubling times, in creative ways: live performances, audio and art walks, visual arts, graphic stories, photography, street art, visits, and multimedia and museum installations. The projects include a diverse range of community members, students, alumni, professors, representing the richness of community-university collaboration.

The public launch, for these projects and the conference itself, is Wednesday October 10th from 5pm to 8pm in Concordia’s new “4th Space” as well as the adjoining LB Atrium and the new “Performing Listening Lab” at COHDS itself. The reception is sponsored by the Concordia Library. Come join us!

– The OHA Local Arrangements Committee:
Steven High, Cynthia Hammond, Kathleen Vaughan, Luis Sotelo Castro, and Kathryn Boschmann