With Vladimir Chindea and HotDocs We are pleased to present, in collaboration with HotDocs, three Citizen Minutes documentaries: Hommes-relais, Becoming Ruby, and Red Girl Rising. Each of these films runs approximately ten minutes and speaks directly to COHDS’s core values of inclusion, resilience, solidarity, and hope. Together, they are sure to captivate viewers and […]
With Cassandra Marsillo This workshop will centre on making two different types of pasta shapes and accompanying recipes typical to Molise, a small region in Southern Italy with a big, historic presence in Montreal. Cavatelli and taccozze are integral parts of Molisan winter remedies. The recipes used for this workshop were collected through oral […]
With Steven High This workshop will introduce you to ways of interpreting the underlying interviewer-interviewee dynamic that structures the oral history recording. It is an interview after all. Yet we tend to be so focused on the words spoken by our interview partners that we submerge the underlying dialogic that is its structuring force. Steven […]
Photo description: Marjorie Villefranche in a collective oral history interview at La Maison d'Haïti With Philippe Blouin, Michael Ferguson, Cassandra Marsillo, Tesfa Peterson, Léa Denieul Pinsky, and Désirée Rochat This conversation explores a central topic: How do oral historians navigate the web of relationships that tie them to the community they are working […]
With Frankie Ray This workshop provides a hands-on introduction to the principles and practices of recording high-quality audio in a range of real-world contexts. Participants will gain practical experience setting up and working with multiple microphone types, including lavaliers, shotgun microphones, podcasting microphones, and built-in camera audio systems. Through guided demonstrations and exercises, the […]
COHDS is delighted to invite you to the 13th Emerging Scholars Symposium, a one-day, in-person event bringing together emerging scholars, artists, and community practitioners working in oral history, digital storytelling, and creative research. This year’s symposium asks: Where is the joy in oral history? exploring joy as an emotional, political, and creative force in storytelling […]
With Lea Kabiljo This event marks the opening of The river that is not, an exhibition presenting a research project developed in collaboration with students from the visual arts program at the Universidad Laica Eloy Alfaro de Manabí, Ecuador, and presented at COHDS from March 9 to April 20. Developed as a short-term teaching intervention, the […]
How does art channel and reshape the way we listen to lived experience? Join Amy Starecheski, Director of Columbia University’s Oral History Master of Arts, and Luis C. Sotelo, Director of Concordia University’s Acts of Listening Lab (ALLab), for a conversation with three artist–scholar teams funded by ALLab to explore bold new pathways for mediating testimony through creative […]
With Hannah Pinilla In this hands-on workshop, participants will explore the intersections of storytelling, music, and cooking through the preparation of alegría, a traditional coconut and panela sweet closely associated with Afro-Colombian palenqueras in Cartagena. Rooted in the history of San Basilio de Palenque—the first free Black town in the Americas—alegría is more than a confection; it is […]
With Violaine Jolivet What story (city) sounds tell us? Reflections on ambiances and soundscapes as geographical narratives This research presentation aims to show how the sounds produced and perceived by individuals and groups can be understood as possible narratives about the places we inhabit and study. Based on interviews conducted as part of my […]
With Julie Norman In this urgent and compelling book, Julie M. Norman and Maia Carter Hallward tell the story of Gaza from its early foundations, across decades of occupation, to the devastation of the ongoing war. Rather than focusing on elites or abstract politics, at the book's heart are ordinary Gazans - students, aid […]
With Martín Giraldo-Hoyos, Camille Robert, Florence Darveau Routhier This year, we are proud to highlight three outstanding postdoctoral researchers at COHDS and to showcase their work. Together, their projects reflect the breadth and vitality of oral history–informed scholarship: from collaborative research with Black farming communities in Colombia using oral history and digital storytelling, to historical […]
With Barbara Lorenzkowski, Tesfa Peterson, Franklin Bonivento Van Grieken and Derek Xavier Garcia To obtain the informed consent of our research participants is both an ethical and institutional obligation for oral historians working at Canadian universities. This workshop seeks to demystify the process of applying for ethics certification. Three emerging scholars will reflect on their […]
Avec Lea Kabiljo Cet atelier vous permettra d’explorer certains des éléments fondamentaux dans le domaine interdisciplinaire de l’histoire orale. Les participants découvriront une approche aux entretiens spécifique à l’histoire orale, l’éthique de la recherche et les nombreuses façons dont les histoires orales sont partagées avec le public. Cet atelier est fortement recommandé à tous nos […]
With Kelann Currie-Williams and Derek Garcia Much of oral history interview preparation rightly (and evidently) revolves around the audio and visual recording of the event. But what happens when the narrator brings their personal archives into the interview space? Drawing from Monica Muñoz Martinez’s “vernacular history making,” personal archives are the objects—photos, drawings, notes, […]
With Sonya Di Sclafani In Montreal’s Hungarian community, food is not only a reflection of stability, tradition, and assimilation, but also carries meanings of family, nostalgia, and joy. Palacsintá, a sweet or savory Hungarian crêpe, is a well-loved and easy dish that can be filled with jam, ground walnut purée, farmer's cheese, cabbage, and […]
With Alistair Thomson How do we make sense of the memories that we record as oral historians? How do we begin to transform stories into histories? In this workshop we’ll consider a range of ways of approaching the interpretation of memories. We’ll note the changing ways that researchers have used memory as a historical […]
With Martha Norkunas This advanced oral history workshop focuses on miscommunications and complexities in listening. Participants will read a chapter from my forthcoming book, Learning to Listen, called “Complexities in Listening” and come to the workshop prepared to discuss the issues it raises. Based on years of listening journals written by graduate students in […]
Opening Plenary and Reception: Listening in the Age of Polycrisis Hosted at the MEM — Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises, 1210 Saint-Laurent Boulevard (Nearest metro station: St. Laurent Metro Station) Sponsored by the Centre de recherche interdisciplinairesur la diversité et la démocratie (CRIDAQ) A conversation about listening in an age of polycrisis, as several crises (economic, ecological, geopolitical, […]
The Kitchen Table Collective: Public Day of Workshops and Talks The Kitchen Table Collective (KTC) is an online network, founded by Anna Sheftel and Stacey Zembrzycki, whose members include leading scholars, artists, activists, and independent practitioners from around the world. Since 2023, the group has met virtually eight times a year to discuss members’ work, developments […]