Dissemination: Into and Out of the Archive

Oral History offers us the possibility to bring different voices to historical research and thus enhances our understanding of the past. But what is the impact of this effort if no one hears the story? For this purpose to be realized, sources must be made accessible to the public by depositing them in an archive that will preserve them. Dissemination, however, is not limited to the archives, but can take on many forms involving their direct engagement with the public. Indeed, the most fruitful Oral History projects are those that give back to the public from which they originated. 

What are archives and why are they important for Oral History? What are the various forms of dissemination an Oral History research project can take? How can an Oral History project represent an intervention, possibly change the way people look at the past?  

Objectives: 

• Define what an archive is and introduce examples of online Oral History archives
• Explore how Oral Histories can be used in projects that go beyond the archives and engage the public

Plenary Discussion (20 min):

Let’s start the session asking participants this question: What is an Archive? We brainstorm a little bit and collect answers on a flip chart. 

To inspire the conversation a little further, let’s watch the short video What is an Archive together. 

Guiding questions:

• What is an archive and why is it important? Why is it integral to the very definition of Oral History? 
• Who keeps archives and what are the different kinds of archives you can imagine?
• What do these archives share in common? 

After 10 mins, we turn to existing examples and visit some online Oral History archives together. As we explore the different archives, let’s reflect with the participants about the significance of an archive and challenges that we might face when using an archive:

• Palestinian Oral History Archive
• Faris and Yamna Naff Arab American Collection
• Archives of American Art: Smithsonian Museum (excerpts from the archives of oral history interviews)
• British Library Oral History Collection

Group Work (30 minutes):

Now that participants have a taste of what Oral History archives are, we want to explore how Oral Histories can be taken out of the archive into the public sphere.

Divide participants into up to 5 groups and assign each group one of the below links to explore as examples of Oral Histories reaching out to the public.

In their groups, have participants explore the project and write the following questions on the flip chart for them to answer and prepare a 5-minute presentation: 

• What do you think the overall purpose or message of the project is? 
• How might the Oral Histories have added multiple perspectives to the project? 
• How do you think the Oral Histories were used in the final product?
• What do you think the team needed to do starting from the actual recording of the interview to its transformation into the final product?
• What can we learn from these projects? 

Oral History Projects: 

• Sam Raby, “Placing Oral Histories, Story Maps”
• Mohamad Hafez, “Unpacked”
• Tania El-Khoury, “Gardens Speak” 
• Several examples of podcasts and oral history on Digital Omnium
• National Park Service Oral History Podcast
• Anthony Tawil and Cedric Kayem, “Maabar, The Podcast”
  
• Urtina-Hoxha, “Those Who Drown Cling to Foam”
• Lukas Schrank, “Nowhere Line: Voices from Manus Island”

Group Presentations (25 minutes):

Each group has 5 minutes to share information about the project they explored, showing the website page, while addressing the questions above. 

Individual Thinking (15 minutes):

Taking the participants’ learning on bringing Oral History into and out of the archive, and if relevant their own Oral History projects, we ask participants to individually reflect on the below questions.

We explain to participants that we will not discuss these reflections but once done, read what others have written as food for thought.  

We hang-up the 3 papers with each question on a separate flip chat, and visible for everyone to see. We then distribute sticky notes for each participant for them to write down their thoughts:   

• How can Oral History be used in our context? What processes could it support, where might it be lacking?
• What role could you envisage taking?
• Beyond the research itself, how could you imagine your findings being disseminated? Can you think of ways that the interviews and their findings could be shared with the public and carried back to the community from where they came?

• The examples above are just some of many more Oral History archives and projects. Don’t hesitate to use your own examples or search the internet for other ideas. 
• If you have more time, feel free to spend longer on the examples of Oral History archives and projects. You could also ask participants to find their own examples. 
• If participants don’t know a lot about archives, we can also refer to the Further Reading About Archives for more information. 
• This session relates to Oral History in Conflict. We encourage both sessions to be done together.