Description
Book SynopsisOral history is inherently about memory, and when oral history interviews are used \u0022in public,\u0022 they invariably both reflect and shape public memories of the past. Oral History and Public Memories is the only book that explores this relationship, in fourteen case studies of oral history's use in a variety of venues and media around the world. Readers will learn, for example, of oral history based efforts to reclaim community memory in post-apartheid Cape Town, South Africa; of the role of personal testimony in changing public understanding of Japanese American history in the American West; of oral history's value in mapping heritage sites important to Australia's Aboriginal population; and of the way an oral history project with homeless people in Cleveland, Ohio became a tool for popular education. Taken together, these original essays link the well established practice of oral history to the burgeoning field of memory studies.
Trade Review"A fine, well-conceived book, refreshingly direct and engaged. A collection of sparkling essays that show oral history at work in a diverse array of contexts, levels, and engagements. They demonstrate powerfully its consequentiality for thinking clearly about meaningful intersections in public space, public life, community sensibility, and mobilized memory. This is no small accomplishment." -Michael Frisch, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Table of ContentsIntroduction Section I: Creating Heritage Chapter 1: Parks Canada, the Commemoration of Canada, and Northern Aboriginal Oral History David Neufeld Chapter 2: History from Above: The Use of Oral History in Shaping Collective Memory in Singapore Kevin Blackburn Chapter 3: Mapping Memories: Oral History for Aboriginal Cultural Heritage in New South Wales, Australia Maria Nugent Chapter 4: Moving beyond the Walls: The Oral History of the Ottoman Fortress Villages of Seddulbahir and Kumkale Isil Cerem Cenker and Lucienne Thys-Senocak Chapter 5: Private Memory in a Public Space: Oral History and Museums Selma Thomas Section II: Recreating Identity and Community Chapter 6: Imagining Communities: Memory, Loss, and Resilience in Post-Apartheid Cape Town Sean Field Chapter 7: Contested Places in Public Memory: Reflections on Personal Testimony and Oral History in Japanese American Heritage Gail Lee Dubrow Chapter 8: "Scars in the Ground": Kauri Gum Stories Senka Bo ic-Vrbancic Chapter 9: Memory and Mourning: Living Oral History with Queer Latinos in San Francisco Horacio N. Roque Ramirez Chapter 10: Interfaced Memory: Black World War II Ex-GIs and Veterans Reunions of the late Twentieth Century Robert Jefferson Section III: Making Change Chapter 11: Public Memory as Arena of Contested Meanings: A Student Project on Migration Riki Van Boeschoten Chapter 12: Countering Corporate Narratives from the Streets: The Cleveland Homeless Oral History Project Daniel Kerr Chapter 13: Public Memory, Gender, and National Identity in Post-War Kosovo: The Albanian Community Silvia Salvatici Chapter 14: Seeing the Past, Visions of the Future: Memory Workshops with Internally Displaced Persons in Colombia Pilar Riano-Alcala Notes Contributors
