Biennial Conference of the Oral History Association of Australia 2011

COMMUNITIES OF MEMORY

 

State Library of Victoria Conference Centre, Melbourne, Victoria
30 September–2 October 2011  Oral History Training Workshops 29 September, 2011

CALL FOR PAPERS – Closing Date: 31 October 2010  

In recent years memory has been an increasingly significant resource for many different types of communities: for survivors of natural catastrophe and human-made disaster; in country towns dealing with demographic and environmental change; for cities and suburbs in constant transformation; in the preservation of special places or the restitution of human rights; for the 'Forgotten Australians' and 'Stolen Generations'; for migrants and refugees creating new lives; among virtual communities sharing life stories online. Memories are used to foster common identity and purpose, to recover hidden histories and silenced stories, to recall change in the past and advocate change in the present, to challenge stereotypes and speak truth to power. The concept of 'community' can be enlisted for change or conservatism; 'communities of memory' can be inclusive and empowering, or exclusive and silencing.

Oral historians, in a variety of guises and combining age-old listening skills with dazzling new technologies, play important roles in this memory work. Our conference welcomes participants who use oral history in their work with and within communities of memory across the many fields and disciplines that contribute to community, public and academic histories. We invite proposals for individual presentations, workshops and thematic panels.

The conference will include history walks and tours that introduce participants to Melbourne's rich and diverse communities of memory. Keynote speakers include Stephen High; Nathalie Nguyen & Peter Read.  Oral history training workshops will be held on the Thursday prior to the conference (29 September).

We welcome proposals for presentations in a variety of formats and media, including standard paper presentations (typically 20 minutes); short accounts of work in progress (typically 5 minutes); participatory workshops; and thematic panels comprising several presenters. Presentations should involve oral history.

Conference sub-themes will include, but are not limited to: 

  • Memory and Catastrophe
  • Memory Work for Human Rights
  • Indigenous Memory Place
  • Community, Memory
  • Communities of Identity
  • Contested Communities
  • Communities of Gender and Sexuality
  • Migrants and Refugees
  • Communities of Work or Leisure
  • Activist Communities
  • War Memories
  • Generational Communities
  • Theories of Collective and Community Memory
  • New Approaches to Recording Lives
  • New Technologies for Documenting Memory and History
  • Memory Work in Creative and Fictional Writing
  • Ethical Issues in Memory Work
  • Training Community Oral Historians

 For more information  or to submit a proposal visit the website http://sites.google.com/site/communitiesofmemory/home 

 or email the Organising Committee at ohaa2011@gmail.com

The 'Communities of Memory' Conference will take place at the State Library of Victoria in Melbourne's City Centre.
It is organised by the Oral History Association of Australia (Victorian branch) in partnership with:

ABC Radio National Social History Unit
Australian Centre for the Moving Image
Institute for Public History at Monash University
Museum of Victoria
National Film and Sound Archive
Professional Historians Association
The State Library of Victoria

 

Organising Committee Address:

C/- Institute for Public History, 6th floor, Building 11
Clayton Campus, Monash University, Vic.3800
Telephone (03) 9902.0116
kerrie.alexander@arts.monash.edu.au

or ohaa2011@gmail.com