Here be dragons.

The Oral History Master of Arts (OHMA) Program and Department of Anthropology, as part of the “Paul F. Lazarsfeld Lecutre Series,” Presents:
 

ORAL HISTORY IN NYC’S SQUATTING COMMUNITIES

WHO: Amy Starecheski is the Associate Director of the Oral History MA (OHMA) program at Columbia University. She is also a former squatter, and is completing a PhD in cultural anthropology at the CUNY Graduate Center, working with squatters to study the roles of history and property in their lives. She consults and lectures widely on oral history education and methods, and is co-author of the Telling Lives Oral History Curriculum Guide. Amy was a lead interviewer on the Oral History Research Office’sSeptember 11, 2001 Narrative and Memory Project, for which she interviewed Afghans, Muslims, Sikhs, activists, low-income people, and the unemployed.

WHEN: Thursday, October 18, 2012, 6:00-8:00pm.

WHERE: Columbia University, Northwest Corner Building, Room 602, 550 West 120th Street, 6th floor. Enter campus at 116th Street, at either Broadway or Amsterdam. Campus Map.

ABOUT THE WORKSHOP: How, when, why and to whom do people talk about their pasts? What is the relationship between oral history and other genres of talk about the past? And what can looking at oral history as a particular intersection of history-making and talk tell us about the sources and deployment of the power of history to work in the world? In her research, Starecheski uses ethnographic fieldwork and interviews to explore these questions in one historically-minded intergenerational activist community: squatters in New York City. In this talk Starecheski will compare three very different contexts in which activists talk about the past with the aim of promoting and supporting new activist projects: a walking tour of squatted buildings, a series of political education lectures organized by a direct action group, and an oral history project aimed towards producing a book.