oral history interviews
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2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margareta von Oswald

What are the possibilities and limits of engaging with colonialism in ethnological museums? This book addresses this question from within the Africa department of the Ethnological Museum in Berlin. It captures the Museum at a moment of substantial transformation, as it prepared the move of its exhibition to the Humboldt Forum, a newly built and contested cultural centre on Berlin’s Museum Island. The book discusses almost a decade of debate in which German colonialism was negotiated, and further recognised, through conflicts over colonial museum collections. Based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork examining the Museum’s various work practices, this book highlights the Museum’s embeddedness in colonial logics and shows how these unfold in the Museum’s everyday activity. It addresses the diverse areas of expertise in the Ethnological Museum – the preservation, storage, curation, and research of collections – and also draws on archival research and oral history interviews with current and former employees. Working through Colonial Collections unravels the ongoing and laborious processes of reckoning with colonialism in the Ethnological Museum’s present – processes from which other ethnological museums, as well as Western museums more generally, can learn.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-197
Author(s):  
Lucie Marková

For many years, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra was an exclusively male organization despite the increasing number of women in Czechoslovakia joining the workforce. This paper, which is based on oral history interviews with members of the orchestra, the paper will attempt to identify the reasons why almost no women were employed there during the period of Czechoslovak Socialism and under what kind of conditions the only two female members worked. Through interpretation and depth analysis of the oral history interview with one of the two female musicians employed by the Philharmonic before 1989, the paper will primarily map the issue of how women reconciled work and family life, which was considered one of the main obstacles for female musicians, while also taking into consideration the Philharmonic’s prestige and its frequent tours abroad. The acquired experience of a female musician is interpreted within the context of male narratives and is embedded in the study’s theoretical framework. This framework is defined by the available research on women’s emancipation and transformations of the gender order of the Czechoslovak socialist society, as well as research comparing the career patterns of musicians (both female and male) and the inclusion of women in the world’s leading symphony orchestras.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ran Abramitzky ◽  
Leah Boustan ◽  
Peter Catron ◽  
Dylan Connor ◽  
Rob Voigt

The United States has admitted more than 3 million refugees since 1980 through official refugee resettlement programs that provide temporary assistance. Scholars have highlighted the success of refugee groups to show the positive impact of governmental programs on assimilation and integration. In the past, however, refugees arrived without formal selection processes or federal support. We examine the integration of historical refugees using a large archive of recorded oral history interviews to understand linguistic attainment and economic outcomes of migrants who arrived before 1940. Using detailed measures of vocabulary, syntax and accented speech, we find that refugee migrants achieved higher levels of English proficiency than did economic migrants, a finding that holds even when comparing migrants from the same country of origin or religious group. This study improves on previous research of immigrant language acquisition, which typically rely on self-reported measures of fluency, and on studies of refugees, which typically assign refugee status based on country-of-birth alone. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that refugees, being unable to immediately return to their origin country, may have had greater incentive to learn or be exposed to English, which increased their linguistic attainment. Our results provide an optimistic historical precedent for the incorporation of refugees into American society.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 217-237
Author(s):  
Dipti Desai

Abstract This essay explores the specific artworks of Asian American artists Tomie Arai and Flo Oy Wong as complex articulations between culture, identity, history, and memory. Based on oral history interviews that were integral parts of their artistic processes, Arai and Wong created works that explored the family histories and memories of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans living in New York City’s Chinatown and California. Their artworks open up a space to explore memory as a way of knowing that is shaped not only by what is said, but more importantly by what is not said—by silences and secrets.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vicky Shandil

<p>Cultural performances are more than forms of entertainment and vehicles for conveying social and religious traditions. These acts are political acts that can exceed their role of promulgating hegemonic formations and instead be used to subvert and deconstruct existing social realities. This doctoral research focuses on performances that subvert IndoFijian heteronormative gender(s), namely: performances by female singers of qawwali, a genre of competitive singing historically exclusive to males; and lahanga naach, dances by cross-dressed males in Fiji and in the IndoFijian diaspora in New Zealand. Situated within the interdisciplinary field of Pacific Studies, this research draws upon cultural and gender studies as well as materials and knowledge from and about Pacific and Indian cultures to examine these cultural performances. Concepts such as Butler’s theory of performativity and Hall’s theory of articulation are employed to argue that cultural performances are performative in the sense that they not only depict what already exists, but initiate and materialise what can be. This argument is discussed and illustrated through both ethnographic and historical engagement and research methods, interweaving transcriptions of performances with relevant academic literature and oral history interviews of performers as well as cultural experts represented by community leaders, academics and gender activists.  This dissertation begins by discussing the idea of a liminal other in relation to ethnic and gender identities and establishes the liminal other’s position in the overarching argument of this research. This is followed by detailed descriptions and analysis of qawwali and lahanga naach, respectively, in accordance with an additional research objective of documenting and creating archival records for these two performance genres. The latter part of the dissertation returns to themes of gender subversion, hegemony and performativity, discussing examples of the real-life implications of embodying liminal identities.  The dissertation concludes by emphasising the need for more research on performance cultures in the Pacific and draws attention to how individual agency can promote social change and impact meaning-making mechanisms of social groups through the means of cultural performance. Importantly, this research presents an alternative outlook on the gendered understandings of IndoFijians by including the voices of the disadvantaged who occupy liminal spaces in society.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Vicky Shandil

<p>Cultural performances are more than forms of entertainment and vehicles for conveying social and religious traditions. These acts are political acts that can exceed their role of promulgating hegemonic formations and instead be used to subvert and deconstruct existing social realities. This doctoral research focuses on performances that subvert IndoFijian heteronormative gender(s), namely: performances by female singers of qawwali, a genre of competitive singing historically exclusive to males; and lahanga naach, dances by cross-dressed males in Fiji and in the IndoFijian diaspora in New Zealand. Situated within the interdisciplinary field of Pacific Studies, this research draws upon cultural and gender studies as well as materials and knowledge from and about Pacific and Indian cultures to examine these cultural performances. Concepts such as Butler’s theory of performativity and Hall’s theory of articulation are employed to argue that cultural performances are performative in the sense that they not only depict what already exists, but initiate and materialise what can be. This argument is discussed and illustrated through both ethnographic and historical engagement and research methods, interweaving transcriptions of performances with relevant academic literature and oral history interviews of performers as well as cultural experts represented by community leaders, academics and gender activists.  This dissertation begins by discussing the idea of a liminal other in relation to ethnic and gender identities and establishes the liminal other’s position in the overarching argument of this research. This is followed by detailed descriptions and analysis of qawwali and lahanga naach, respectively, in accordance with an additional research objective of documenting and creating archival records for these two performance genres. The latter part of the dissertation returns to themes of gender subversion, hegemony and performativity, discussing examples of the real-life implications of embodying liminal identities.  The dissertation concludes by emphasising the need for more research on performance cultures in the Pacific and draws attention to how individual agency can promote social change and impact meaning-making mechanisms of social groups through the means of cultural performance. Importantly, this research presents an alternative outlook on the gendered understandings of IndoFijians by including the voices of the disadvantaged who occupy liminal spaces in society.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 292-319
Author(s):  
Kelann Currie-Williams

Looking through the pages of family photo albums or the folders of photographic archival fonds can only be described as holding history in your hands. Whether it is in the form of colour or black and white prints, negatives, or slides, these photo-objects carry histories of lives lived that go beyond their frames. Focusing on a set of oral history interviews conducted with two Black women living in Montréal — a community photographer or image “maker” who was most active during the 1970s–1990s and a photo-collector or “keeper” who is currently active in preserving and sharing photographs for her church and wider communities within the city — this article engages with how the interweaving of photography and oral history gives us a rich way to experience the histories of Black social life in Montréal. Photo-led oral history interviews are sites for fruitful and in-depth conversation, providing interviewee and interviewer alike with the possibility of coming into encounter with everyday or minor histories that are too often overlooked. Moreover, this article is driven by a set entwined questions: How does oral testimony open up additional avenues for sharing the events of the past that have been captured through photographic images? What affective and relational qualities do photographs possess and how, in turn, do these qualities transform the space of the oral history interview? And, most urgently, why was photography used by Black Montréalers as a tool and a practice to remember and insist upon their collective presence?


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Michael Dudding

<p>This thesis is an oral history based investigation of four recently graduated architects (Bill Alington, Maurice Smith, Bill Toomath and Harry Turbott) who individually left New Zealand to pursue postgraduate qualifications at United States universities in the immediate postwar period. Guided interviews were conducted to allow the architects to talk about these experiences within the broader context of their careers. The interviews probed their motivations for travelling and studying in the United States. Where possible archival material was also sought (Fulbright applications, university archives) for comparison with the spoken narratives.   Although motivated by the search of modernity and the chance to meet the master architects of the period (Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and Wright) what all gained was an increase in the confidence of their own abilities as architects (or as a landscape architect in the case of Turbott who switched his focus while in the United States). This increase in confidence partly came from realising that their architectural heroes were ordinary people. Although searching for modernity, their encounters with the canon of architectural history also had a profound effect. This detailed knowledge of what these four subjects felt about architecture, architectural education, and their experiences of studying, working, and touring abroad has helped to shed light on the development of and influences on postwar architecture in New Zealand.   The series of oral history interviews that were recorded during this project not only form the basis of the research material for this thesis, but are, in their own right, a significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of New Zealand’s postwar architectural history.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Elizabeth Kerekere

<p>Since the early 1980s, Māori who are whakawāhine, tangata ira tāne, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex or queer have increasingly adopted the identity of ‘takatāpui’ - a traditional Māori term meaning ‘intimate companion of the same sex.’ As the first study on takatāpui identity and well-being, this is fashioned as a Whāriki Takatāpui; a woven mat which lays the foundation for future research and advocacy. Kaupapa Māori research provides the tools for this task while Kaupapa Māori theory ensures the harvest of Māori narratives is underpinned by te reo, tikanga and mātauranga - Māori language, culture and knowledges. The preparation of weaving materials is represented by Mana Wāhine; which considers whakapapa (genealogy), intersectional colonial oppression with an artistic approach to analysing whakataukī (historical metaphor). Mana Motuhake represents the design of the Whāriki; the colours and patterns emanating from the subjective experiences of six leaders who have embraced a takatāpui identity. Te Whare Tapa Whā represents weaving together takatāpui health and well-being in response to the issues and discrimination they face. Oral history interviews were held with takatāpui participants who reflected a diversity of iwi, geographical location, gender identities and sexualities and, at the time of interview, ranged from 17 to 68 years of age. In order to gain insight into the perception of whānau with takatāpui members, semi structured interviews were also held with two kuia (female elders) and 12 whānau members of the takatāpui rangatahi (young people) interviewed. In total 27 participants were interviewed in three stages over four years. Their responses were recorded, transcribed then analysed based on the elements of the Whāriki Takatāpui framework. Despite colonial efforts to remove historical trace, this study reveals new evidence of takatāpui behaviour within traditional Māori narratives. It finds that takatāpui identity is predicated on Māori identity with a spiritual connection to takatāpui tūpuna (ancestors) that is crucial in addressing the discrimination they may face within their whānau and culture. It identifies the range of issues that impact on takatāpui health and well-being while highlighting the creative and strength-based manner in which takatāpui build resilience and connection through identity.</p>


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