OHMA Academics
ACADEMICS
OHMA G4010 & G4011 Oral History Workshop (6 credits)
This course is organized as a yearlong series of public seminars on the wide range of issues raised by a consideration of how oral history methodologies impact disciplines in the social sciences as well as the humanities. Scholars who have used oral history and narrative analysis in their research will be drawn from the New York area. Students will participate by responding to speakers, and drawing upon their presentations in their own thesis work. All workshops are free and open to the public though they function as a part of the required course series for OHMA students.
OHMA G4015 Oral History Method and Theory (4 credits)
Taught by Mary Marshall Clark, and Roxsana Sussewell Fall 2009
This interdisciplinary course, taken in the fall semester, is an in-depth introduction to the theoretical writings in oral history on historical research, memory, interviewing methodologies, life history and the application of theoretical paradigms to specific fieldwork problems. Students will identify a field research project in the first three weeks of the semester and address the dynamics of the interview and fieldwork situation through theoretical analysis of the historic context in which the interview takes place. Students will also analyze the strengths and weaknesses of interviewing methods as they apply to existing disciplinary paradigms. The broader focus of the course is to introduce students to the wide array of theoretical issues raised by the intersection of history, memory and life story narratives in the effort to understand the recent past in relation to critical issues of interpretation in today's world.
OHMA G4020 & G4021 - Oral History: Fieldwork, Production and Archiving (6 credits)
Taught by Roxsana Sussewell
This is a yearlong course in fieldwork, documentary production and archiving. Students will learn techniques of digital recording, archiving, preservation and editing; conduct interviews in a diverse network of New York City communities and learn about professional standards for conducting ethical research in a variety of interview settings. Fieldwork training will include opportunities to conduct biographical as well as community-based interviews, while exploring questions of individual and social identity in the creation and interpretation of oral histories. Students will work in small groups to apply the techniques of presenting of oral history interviews in written texts, multi-media environments and public presentations.
OHMA G4025 Social Science Contributions to the Analysis of Narrative and Life History (4 credits)
Taught by William McAllister, Fall 2009
This course considers some ways in which social scientists use biographical/life history information. The focus is on the conceptual importance of such information for selected issues in social science and in understanding and developing the ability to use tools for analyzing these kinds of information. We consider methods that social scientists use to work with biographical/life history data in order to reveal temporal processes, such as case histories, sequence analysis and networks. The substantive contexts which we will use to study these methods come from diverse fields: history, psychology, sociology, political science, and in specific contexts, such as conceiving children for case history analysis; criminal behavior or careers for event sequence analysis; stories of becoming a revolutionary or of ethnic conflict for network analysis.
OHMA G4012 Oral History Master’s Thesis (3 credits)
All students complete an M.A. thesis under the supervision of the student's advisor and the OHMA program directors. Well-prepared students can complete the degree in two semesters, though some prefer to study for three semesters.
OHMA Electives:
OHMA G4030 The Uses of Oral History (4 credits)
Taught by Luisa Passerini, Spring 2010
This course considers the various ways in which orality can be re-elaborated and give rise to very different types of products. This presupposes a multi-valence and flexibility of oral testimonies, which cannot be restricted to the general meaning of "oral history". However, each field of elaboration requires specific procedures in order to transform the oral document into a source. Some of these procedures, whether philological or creative, will be taken in consideration in the course, which will therefore have a constant methodological focus. Moreover, the combination of oral and visual (photographs, paintings, films) might be taken into account, in products such as videos and video-art. The concept of subjectivity will be central to the course in its wide sense: the subjectivity of the researcher; the intersubjectivity at the basis of the creation of the interview; the various forms of subjectivity of those who are the "subjects" of history (forms of identity and identification). Because of this "subjective" approach, I will often use my own work as exemplification.
OHMA G4040 From Oral History to Literary Narrative (4 credits)
Taught by Jerald Albarelli, Spring 2010
An oral history is both a personal record of a life and potential source material for works by a broad range of scholars, policymakers and artists. This seminar provides an introduction to the art and craft of fashioning a work of literary nonfiction from oral histories. Although the emphasis will be on oral history, basic complementary first-person sources such as letters, diaries, interviews, and eyewitness accounts will also figure in the discussion. Major areas to be covered: the nature of literary narrative; augmenting the oral history with other sources; finding and interpreting the necessary additional materials; evaluating and using multiple perspectives on an event or a person; developing a narrative voice; finding the story in a subject; choosing a form for the narrative; character and plot in nonfiction; recreating a world; setting contextual boundaries; and integrating exposition and narrative.
A third elective (4000-level or above) should be chosen from a discipline related to the student’s research interest. It must be approved by the Program. Please consult Columbia University’s Directory of Classes to see what is offered.
