COHDS

Symposium Channels of Testimony: Artistic Mediations of Listening
2026-03-27 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Quebec
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 practice. This symposium brings together innovative practitioners working at the intersection of oral history, performance, sound, and socially engaged art. Together, we’ll delve into the practical and theoretical challenges of transforming real-life stories into artistic forms

Speakers and Projects
T Braun and Franklin van Grieken
Sentir la Luz/Sense the Light
A research-creation project that investigates how digital mediation and virtual reality, sound, and light reshapes perception and listening in a group of people with visual impairment. This project is carried out in collaboration with Kim Sawchuk, Kara Paul, and Teatro Ciego.

Vanessa Terán and María Fernanda del Real
Sucúa Haven
Migrant Stories: Embodied Listening Lab
Inspired by Sucúa Haven, a collection of migration stories created with Ecuadorian in Connecticut (United States), a group of Latin diaspora participants in Montreal (Canada), as well as Ecuadorians and other Latin American immigrants in Quito (Ecuador), will reflect on their own migratory experiences and create performances of embodied testimonies that places Sucúa Haven stories in dialogue with their own.

Peng Hsu
Cucumbers, The Melancholy of a Turtle and a Girl’s Otaku’s Romance
A novel/play creative project that explores BBR. BBR, short for Broke Broke Recitation, is my translation of the Mandarin term 碎碎唸 (siu siu nian), a phrase commonly used in Taiwan and China to describe how women chatter incessantly about daily and seemingly banal trivialities. Theorized here as a technique of queer narration, BBR functions as a dramaturgical writing style through which the project examines housing justice, an endangered turtle, and the inarticulable experiences of constipation and yearning of romance.

Moderator
Luis C. Sotelo Castro
Director, Acts of Listening Lab (Concordia University)
Discussant
Amy Starecheski
Director, Oral History Master of Arts Program (Columbia University)

REGISTRATION

This is a hybrid event.
Register in person with this link

Register for zoom with this link

LOCATION
In-person at the 4TH SPACE, Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Cooking With COHDS: Cantos y Coco – Preparing Alegría to the songs of Palenqueras
2026-03-30 14:00 - 16:00 | Concordia’s SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation (LB-145), 1400 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montréal
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 a symbol of resistance, memory, and cultural continuity. The workshop will unfold to the sounds of traditional cantos de venta and bullerengue rhythms, echoing the melodic street calls through which palenqueras sell their sweets in Cartagena’s plazas. Guided through the key steps of grating coconut, cooking panela to the perfect caramel point, and shaping the mixture into compact rounds, participants will explore the vital role of Palenqueras in shaping the music, culinary traditions, and cultural memory of the Colombian Caribbean.
Over alegría and limonada de coco, participants will reflect on the storytelling relationship between cooking and music—how songs, sounds, and shared rhythms shape the ways we remember and retell food traditions.

Hannah Pinilla is an oral historian and holds a MA in public history with a specialization in digital humanities at Carleton University. Her SSHRC-funded master’s research project, “El Sabor del Hogar: The Transformation of Identity and Memory Through the Food Practices of Colombian Migrants in Quebec,” engaged nine Colombian migrants, living in Montreal and Longueuil in oral history interviews facilitated through cooking sessions, to explore how the narration, preparation, and consumption of ‘home foods’ is a form of embodied and interactive diasporic memory work. Her research question were guided by her own lived experiences as the granddaughter of a first-generation Colombian-Canadian: how does the dialectical relationship between identity and memory manifest through food practice and what impact does it have on the process of home-building?

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
As part of our exploration of Columbian foodways and oral histories, we will be preparing and eating a small meal together. Given space constraints, we need to limit the number of participants to fifteen. We will purchase food items based on the number of registered attendees. Should you be unable to attend, may we ask that you let us know at least one week in advance? We’d then be able to calibrate our food purchases accordingly and/or offer your spot to a participant on the waiting list.
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person at “The SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation,” LB-145, Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Faire parler les sons de la ville. Réflexions sur les ambiances et les paysages sonores en tant que récits géographiques
2026-04-01 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
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 research in urban geography, I consider ambiences or soundscapes as narratives about territories, allowing for a descriptive and analytical approach to the neighborhoods and cities I study. Whether produced, designed, or experienced, sounds depend on our architectural, social, aesthetic, political, and technical environments, but above all on our sensory experience of space.

Violaine Jolivet has been a professor of geography at the University of Montreal since 2012, after obtaining a PhD from Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne 1 and completing postdoctoral studies in New York (CUNY). Her expertise lies at the intersection of urban and migration studies, using comparative methods. Her research focuses on transnational mobility, gentrification, and resistance to displacement in Havana and Montreal.
Documentaries – video and audio, sound maps, narrative cartography, and hybrid methodologies strongly influence her research.Looking on several of my past and ongoing research projects, she would like to discuss how sounds have influenced her practice and methods, particularly field recording and sound maps, and present some more general reflections on sounds as narratives.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Montreal Book Launch of Gaza: The Dream and the Nightmare
2026-04-10 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
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 workers, journalists, and teachers – whose first-hand testimonies vividly illuminate the realities behind the headlines.
Refusing to sensationalize or oversimplify, the book reckons with the legal, moral, and humanitarian debates surrounding Gaza, from war crimes investigations to the contested meaning of resistance and the politicization of aid. Combining a nuanced narrative with hard-hitting reflections from everyday Gazans, the book serves as a timely and necessary disruption of media cliches and political binaries, and from the perspectives of its own people.

Julie Norman is Associate Professor of Politics and International Relations at University College London and Senior Associate Fellow on the Middle East at the Royal United Services Institute. Previously she taught in the Political Science Department at
Concordia University and served as Co-Director of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

COHDS Postdoctoral Oral History Showcase: A Roundtable
2026-04-15 10:00 - 12:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
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 studies of women, labour, and feminist movements in Quebec, and place-based, creative ethnographic research on poverty and gentrification in Sherbrooke.

Martín Giraldo-Hoyos is an FRQ-SC postdoctoral fellow in Concordia’s Department of Geography, Planning and Environment. His current project examines the intersections of oral history, soundscape ecology, story mapping, and digital storytelling to support collaborative research with Black farming communities in Colombia’s Cauca River Valley. This work builds on his PhD dissertation at McGill University, which analyzed the environmental history of emancipation in the region between mid-19th and early-20th centuries through geospatial methods, political ecology, and social history. Martín also produces documentary podcasts in collaboration with Afro-Colombian organizations and participates in grassroots archival cataloguing initiatives.

Camille Robert is a historian and postdoctoral researcher at Concordia University. Her research focuses on the history of women, work, unionism, and feminist movements in Quebec. In 2017, she published Toutes les femmes sont d’abord ménagères. Histoire d’un combat féministe pour la reconnaissance du travail ménager with Éditions Somme toute. She also co-edited, with Louise Toupin, the collective work Travail invisible. Portraits d’une lutte féministe inachevée, published in the fall of 2018 by Éditions du remue-ménage. Committed to contributing to the dissemination of history, she is a member of the editorial board of Histoire Engagée and collaborates with several media outlets and organizations.

Florence Darveau Routhier conducts her research in the Alexandre district of downtown Sherbrooke, a working-class neighborhood where revitalization initiatives are part of the ongoing gentrification process. Her place-based research aims to deconstruct the managerial perspective that approaches poverty and related issues “from the top down.” She therefore addresses the issues of poverty and the historical struggles associated with it as closely as possible, examining how they are experienced, using creative ethnographic methods and situated perspective epistemologies. She is a member of the Collectif d’histoire, d’éducation et d’archivage populaire de Sherbrooke (CHEAP), with which she conducts her research.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory.

LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Ethics in Research: How to Apply for Ethics Certification
2026-04-17 14:00 - 16:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
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 experiences in navigating this process and discuss how they have translated the ethos of “sharing authority” into the formal language of their ethics applications. Meanwhile, Lead Co-Director Barbara Lorenzkowski will provide hands-on guidance on how to prepare an ethics application for your own thesis research at Concordia. Registered participants will be provided with examples of successful ethics applications, including consent forms.
Barbara Lorenzkowski is an oral historian of childhood and youth whose work explores the ways in which global processes of migration, displacement, and violence have shaped small people’s lives in outsized ways. She recently published the co-edited anthology Small Stories of War: Children, Youth, and Conflict in Canada and Beyond (with Kristine Alexander and Andrew Burt, McGill-Queen’s University Press 2023) and is currently completing a FQRSC-funded book project The Children’s War, a large-scale oral history project on children’s sensuous and emotional life-worlds in Atlantic Canada during the Second World War. Dr. Lorenzkowski is the Lead Co-Director of COHDS.
Tesfa Aki Peterson is a public humanities researcher and community-based scholar whose work centers Caribbean history, feminist postcolonial thought, and participatory storytelling. As a student in the PhD Humanities program at Concordia University, her current project traces the life and legacy of Helen Louise Langdon Norton Little, a woman born in LaDigue, Grenada in the late nineteenth century, whose life connected Grenada, Montreal, and the American Midwest. Helen Little was active in the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in Montreal and was the mother of eight children, including civil rights leader Malcolm X. Grounded in community knowledge and Caribbean feminist and postcolonial perspectives, her work asks how public humanities can preserve and honor lives that have been marginalized by colonial archives, while creating inclusive, intergenerational spaces for learning in both Grenada and the diaspora. Since 2020, she has collaborated with the Institute for People’s Enlightenment in the Grenadian village of LaDigue to organize lectures, storytelling sessions, and public conversations that center local voices and oral histories. Additionally, the project also extends to Montreal through an oral history and ritual storytelling podcast documenting Grenadian women’s community organizing. Across storybooks, podcasts, workshops, and public events, Tesfa’s work models a decolonial public humanities rooted in care, collaboration, and community memory.
Franklin Bonivento Van Grieken studied Anthropology (honor degree, 2019) and has a master’s degree in History (Cum Laude thesis, 2022) at the National University of Colombia in Bogotá, Colombia. As a son, and grandson, of indigenous Wayuu women, and as a son of a Jewish man, his academic life has been focused on comprehending his own roots and finding ways to communicate them, as well as on Caribbean history, Wayuu people cosmovision, oralities, migrations, frontiers, and musicology. In that respect, he has explored different formats such as essays, creative narratives, and since 2015 he has been engaged in radio broadcasting and podcasting. This experience of creation has served as a form to make and show research: exploring the sound-essays, radio-documentaries, podcasting, among others. He has worked, too, in museography, writing books, fieldwork, and has always considered interdisciplinary work more of a conviction than an option, jumping between the boundaries of disciplines to have big conversations and to find methods and techniques to apprehend our reality, therefore finding new questions, new responses, and new audiences.
Derek Xavier Garcia is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Concordia University, Montréal, and a 2025–2026 Scholar-in-Residence at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling. He was previously a 2023–2024 Mellon Foundation Resident Scholar in Latino Studies at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His research falls at the intersections of the culture, memory, and history of Mexican American activist movements, particularly at the first Mexican American college in the United States, Colegio Jacinto Treviño (1969-1976). He has published in American Quarterly and Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Introduction à l’histoire orale
2026-04-20 15:00 - 17:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
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 nouvelles.eaux affilié.e.s, car il a pour but de présenter la méthodologie et l’éthique suivies par notre Centre.
Cet atelier offre des conseils sur la réalisation d’un projet d’histoire orale du début à la fin, y compris la planification du projet, les méthodes d’entretien, la gestion des données et le traitement des dossiers, ainsi que la diffusion de ceux-ci. L’atelier comprend également des moments interactif qui permettront aux participant.e.s de discuter des concepts clés et de mettre en pratique les stratégies d’entretien.

Lea Kabiljo, professeur à l’École d’art, Université Laval, est une chercheuse multidisciplinaire, dont l’expertise s’étend aux domaines des arts, de la pédagogie et de l’histoire orale. Elle porte un intérêt particulier à l’intégration de la photographie et de l’histoire orale dans sa démarche de recherche-création.
Titulaire d’un doctorat en éducation artistique de l’Université Concordia, sa recherche met en évidence une approche multidisciplinaire en examinant le potentiel pédagogique de l’histoire orale et de la photographie dans le domaine de l’enseignement artistique.
Ayant enseigné dans des milieux scolaires, communautaires et universitaires, Lea s’intéresse activement à la formation des enseignants, avec un accent particulier sur le développement des compétences socio-émotionnelles. Également reconnue pour son expertise en histoire orale, elle a dirigé de nombreux projets de recherche au Québec, ainsi que des initiatives d’envergure internationale.
Quadrilingue, ayant voyagé dans plus de trente pays et vécu sur quatre continents, Lea a développé une vision du monde ancrée dans les valeurs d’équité, de diversité et d’inclusion. Elle cherche constamment à appliquer ces principes dans toutes ses démarches, tant professionnelles que personnelles.

INSCRIPTION
Inscrivez-vous ici.
Veuillez noter que tous nos événements sont gratuits et ouverts à toutes et à tous. Cependant, vous devez réserver votre place. Pour participer à l’événement en présentiel évrivez à: cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LIEU
Le CHORN/ALLAB sont situés sur le territoire non-cédé de Kanien’kehá:ka à Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal.
En personne à LB-1019 (salle Sunroom), Centre d’histoire orale et de narration numérique (COHDS), Université Concordia, 1400 boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, pavillon J.-W. McConnell (pavillon de la Bibliothèque).

Personal Archives in the Interview Space
2026-04-30 14:00 - 16:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
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, documents, digital creations—that individuals collect to preserve historical perspectives which may not be considered by institutional archives. This workshop envisions these moments of sharing as opportunities to learn with the narrator; despite the surprise they may bring.
How do you include these objects in the interview? How do you record their presence? How might a researcher design ethics around this possibility? Garcia and Currie-Williams will discuss their experiences interviewing individuals who brought more to the interview than what was expected, and how they effectively included these materials in their dialogue.

Kelann Currie-Williams is a writer and PhD Candidate at Concordia University’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, working at the intersections of Visual Culture Studies, History, Black Studies, and Cultural Studies. Their research focuses on the image-making and photographic preservation histories of the Afro-Caribbean diaspora in Canada from the late 19th to late 20th centuries. Kelann was a 2023-2024 scholar-in-residence and 2024-2025 Student Representative of the COHDS Administrative Board.
Derek Xavier Garcia is a PhD candidate in the Department of History at Concordia University. His research falls at the intersections of culture, memory, and history of Mexican American and Chicanx activist movements. His dissertation explores educational activism at Colegio Jacinto Treviño (1970-1976), the first Mexican American college in the United States. Derek was a 2022-2023 Student Representative on the COHDS Administrative Board and is currently a 2025-2026 Scholar-in-Residence at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Cooking With COHDS: Palacsintá – Sharing Stories and Pancakes from the Hungarian Montreal Community
2026-05-01 13:00 - 16:00 | Concordia’s SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation (LB-145), 1400 Boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, Montréal
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 meats. In this workshop we will learn to make palacsintá and create both a sweet and a savory filling. To accompany us, a member of the Hungarian diaspora in Montreal will be invited to share their recollections of palacsintá and other food practices of the community.
This workshop on foodways in the Hungarian diaspora forms part of my larger research project on the history of Hungarian-Canadian refugees and their descendants who made Montreal home in the mid-twentieth century. In my oral history fieldwork, I turn to women’s memories of foodways as a way of tracing the intergenerational, interethnic, and gendered dynamics of forced migration and homemaking by Hungarian Canadian women in the second half of the twentieth century. I hope that you can join us!

Sonya Di Sclafani is a MA student (History) at Concordia University, where she previously completed both a BFA in Photography and Art History and a BA Honours in History, with a minor in English Literature. She is interested in exploring experiences of migration, cross-cultural contact, East European history, and Jewish history. Her MA thesis examines the history of Montreal’s Hungarian diaspora, with a particular eye to gendered foodways and food as a means of cultural continuity and disruption. Drawing on newspaper and archival research, she has begun to map the culinary landscape of Hungarian restaurants and food speciality stores in Montreal that provided spaces for inter-ethnic encounters, fondly remembered in some of the oral history interviews she conducted to date.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
As part of our exploration of Hungarian foodways and oral histories, we will be preparing and eating a small meal together. Given space constraints, we need to limit the number of participants to fifteen. We will purchase food items based on the number of registered attendees. Should you be unable to attend, may we ask that you let us know at least one week in advance? We’d then be able to calibrate our food purchases accordingly and/or offer your spot to a participant on the waiting list.
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person at “The SHIFT Centre for Social Transformation,” LB-145, Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Interpreting Oral History: A Masterclass with Alistair Thomson
2026-06-10 10:00 - 13:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
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 source. We’ll consider the factors that shape memory stories. We’ll try out narrative analysis with interview extracts (from Al’s interviews with migrants and war veterans) using the rich clues of sound, gesture, word and narrative form. We’ll think about how we might work with a set of interviews to find historical patterns and illuminate historical themes. And we’ll consider the ethical issues posed when we interpret people’s lives and stories. You’ll finish up brimming with ideas and enthusiasm for working with your own interviews (or other people’s interviews), armed with lists of further reading if you wish to deepen your understanding
Alistair Thomson has been teaching oral history since he ran an adult education interviewing workshop in regional Australia in 1985, and in 2018 received an Australian Award for University Teaching Excellence. Al is Emeritus Professor of History at Monash University and a former President of Oral History Australia and the International Oral History Association. His oral history books include: Anzac Memories (1994 and 2013), The Oral History Reader (1998, 2006 and 2015 with Rob Perks, and 2026, forthcoming with Alex Freund), Ten Pound Poms: Australia’s Invisible Migrants (2005, with Jim Hammerton), Moving Stories: an intimate history of four women across two countries (2011) Oral History and Photography (2011, with Alexander Freund) Australian Lives: An Aural History (2017, with Anisa Puri), Fathering: An Australian History (2025, with John Murphy, Kate Murphy and Johnny Bell), and The Bloomsbury Handbook of Oral History (2026, with Alexander Freund and Erin Jessee). Website: https://althomsonoralhistory.com.au/

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Complexities in Listening: A Masterclass with Martha Norkunas
2026-06-11 10:00 - 12:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
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 my oral history seminars, the chapter reflects on why two people in a narrating-listening relationship can leave the interview with radically different experiences. Do we ever know how our narrator’s felt about the interview? Participants will be invited to share complex issues that arose in their own, or their students’ interviews. We will look at interpreting body language, voice inflection and pacing, the delicate, often nonverbal negotiations that take place about what is appropriate to talk about in an interview and what is too personal, and, related to that, what is culturally appropriate and who decides.

It is essential that all participants read Chapter Ten, Complexities in Listening, and take notes for reference prior to the workshop. The chapter link will be sent upon registration before the workshop.

Martha Norkunsa is an oral and public historian in Austin, Texas. She holds a Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University’s Folklore Institute. She is the author of The Politics of Public Memory (SUNY Press, 1993), Monuments and Memory (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002) and the forthcoming Learning to Listen: Exercises to Become a More Empathic Interviewer (Palgrave, 2026) as well as articles in national and international journals. Norkunas’s work examines how historical and cultural memory is represented in narrative and on the landscape, and how those representations intersect with race, gender, class and power. She taught graduate seminars in oral history at the University of Texas at Austin and in the Public History Program at Middle Tennessee State University. She directed a twenty-year project, the African American Oral History Project (now at the Library of Congress), as well as a variety of oral history projects with refugees, refugee workers, women in Democratic politics, National Park Service Superintendents interpreting slavery, and peace activists. Her own oral history project focused on women textile workers, the meaning of work for furniture workers, women and cancer, women imagining safe cities, immigrants and refugees, and political activists in resistance movements.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

The Kitchen Table Collective : Open Plenary and Reception
2026-06-11 18:00 - 21:00 | MEM, 1210 Boulevard Saint-Laurent
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, etc.) occur, amplify, and interact with each other on a global scale. Rooted in oral history methodologies that focus on solidarity, decolonization, and de-centring the human, Crystal Mun-hye Baik, Elder John Sawyer, Katrina Srigley, and Leyla Neyzi reflect on listening as a political act for community-building and a counterpoint to dynamics of violence, polarization, and alienation.

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 in the field of oral history, and how we are collectively navigating the politics of our institutions, communities, and everyday lives. We are pleased to now open up this generative space to COHDS community members, by inviting you to attend the collective’s first in-person meeting: “Listening in the Age of Polycrisis.” This symposium asks how oral historians ought to adapt to the shifting realities and crises of our current moment to not just strengthen the field, but think through what our work may offer our troubled world.
Please join us for the symposium’s opening plenary at the Centre des mémoires montréalaises (MEM) on Thursday, June 11 and a full day of talks and workshops at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling on Friday, June 12, all of which will focus on what it means to listen right now.

We ask that you register at the links below if you are interested in attending; you can also find these links in the complete program. Feel free to circulate these events within your networks too!

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
Please note that the symposium’s opening plenary and reception are hosted at the MEM — Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises, 1210 Saint-Laurent Boulevard (Nearest metro station: St. Laurent Metro Station)

The Kitchen Table Collective : Public Day of Workshops and Talks
2026-06-12 09:00 - 17:30 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
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 in the field of oral history, and how we are collectively navigating the politics of our institutions, communities, and everyday lives. We are pleased to now open up this generative space to COHDS community members, by inviting you to attend the collective’s first in-person meeting: “Listening in the Age of Polycrisis.” This symposium asks how oral historians ought to adapt to the shifting realities and crises of our current moment to not just strengthen the field, but think through what our work may offer our troubled world.
Please join us for a full day of talks and workshops at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling on Friday, June 12, all of which will focus on what it means to listen right now.
Public Day of Workshops and Talks, including the Oral History Book Launch (Limited spaces), 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
You can consult the full program here.

Workshop: Push Play, A Participatory Workshop on Oral History and Play (Limited spaces)
16h00 – 17h30
Push Play is an experiential workshop that invites participants to rethink assumptions about speech, narrative, and memory embedded in oral history practice. Through play-based, theatrical, and sensory exercises, the workshop asks: What is the most open invitation we can offer someone to share their experience of being in the world? And what conditions make that kind of sharing possible? Participants will engage in embodied memory work, sensory exploration, improvisation, and collective scene-making to explore how the body listens, remembers, and communicates—including beyond or before spoken language. Rather than privileging stories or linear narration, Push Play emphasizes presence, process, and relational attention. Designed for oral historians, educators, and artists, this workshop is a shared space for experimenting with and thinking together about how to create more inclusive and expansive approaches to memory work. Participants will collectively reflect on how these practices might inform their interviews, classrooms, archives, and community-based projects.
Co-sponsored by the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling and Concordia University’s Department of History

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link for Public Day of Workshops and Talks, including the Oral History Book Launch (Limited spaces) and with this link for Workshop: Push Play, A Participatory Workshop on Oral History and Play (Limited spaces)
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person at LB-1019 (Sunroom), LB-1042 (Media Lab) in the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), and LB-1014 (Department of History Seminar Room), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Introduction to Oral History
2026-09-11 10:00 - 12:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Steven High

This workshop will provide you with some of the fundamentals in the interdisciplinary field of oral history. Participants will learn about an oral history approach to interviewing, ethics in research, and the many ways that oral histories are shared with the public. This workshop is strongly recommended to all new affiliates, as it is intended to present the methodology and ethics followed by our Centre.
Steven High is lead co-director of COHDS and has published extensively on oral history methodology, theory and ethics. His books include Oral History at the Crossroads, Beyond Testimony and Trauma: Oral History in the Aftermath of Mass Violence, and Deindustrializing Montreal: Entangled Histories of Race, Residence and Class. He led the prize-winning Montreal Life Stories project.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Annual General Assembly – Assemblée générale annuelle
2026-09-18 11:00 - 14:30 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
Keynote speaker: Ioana Radu
“ Nurturing worlds of care and belonging: Indigenous Kinscapes and Oral History ”

Ioana Radu is a professor at the School of Indigenous Studies at Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT) and COHDS core member. For more than two decades, Ioana has worked in partnership with Indigenous communities and organizations in Quebec on priority issues in Indigenous health and well-being, knowledge mobilization, and decoloniality.

SCHEDULE:
11 am – 12 pm
Keynote Speaker – Conférencière invitée
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Lunch
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Annual General Assembly – Assemblée générale annuelle

Reporting – Rapport
Electing – Élections
Q&A – Période de questions

See last year’s AGA meeting minutes (2025)

REGISTRATION

Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but you need to register!
To attend, please register here.
For any questions regarding this event please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LB 1019 (Sunroom), COHDS

COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Immersive Oral History Capture: Setup, Recording, and Archiving
2026-09-24 13:00 - 16:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
With Frankie Ray

In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn the essentials of setting up and recording oral history interviews with both video and audio. We will cover how to prepare a recording environment, assemble and test a recording rig, and troubleshoot common technical challenges. Beyond capturing the interview itself, participants will gain practical skills in file transfer, organization, and archival best practices, ensuring that valuable stories are safely preserved for long-term use. Participants will practice setting up tripods, microphones, and recorders, then conduct short mock interviews to apply these skills in real time. Cameras available to participants will be Sony FX6, Canon XA40, Blackmagic and JVC 3CCD. The session will conclude with a focus on safe file management: offloading to a computer, creating backups, and preparing files for the archive. No prior technical experience is required; this workshop is designed for anyone interested in documenting, preserving, and safeguarding oral history materials.
What we’ll do:
§ Why technical setup matters for oral history
§ Demonstrate a short 10-minute oral history video/audio project from our archives
§ Equipment set up: build camera & mics
§ File offload and management for editing
§ Best Practices in Archiving Audio- and Videofiles
§ Tear down gear and put it back safely

Perks:
§ Everyone gets to touch gear
§ Make a check list for oral history kit for everyone to take home

Frankie Ray is a Montreal-based videographer and DJ, with professional experience across music festivals, music videos, and film productions, including Netflix, HBO, the NFB and Crave. Trained as a certified 2nd Assistant Camera in ICG669/IATSE, Frankiebrings both technical expertise and creative insight to their work. Outside of their personal work, Frankiehas always put a focus on accessible, hands-on training. At COHDS, Frankie combines their professional background with a commitment to supporting researchers, artists, and storytellers in capturing and preserving stories with care and technical confidence.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1042 (Media Lab), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Listening Circles: Telling Interview Stories (Monthly)
2026-09-25 11:00 - 13:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
Facilitated by Anna Sheftel, Stacey Zembrzycki and Cassandra Marsillo, who are Kitchen Table Collective Members

Creating open, safe, generative, and generous spaces to tell interview stories is vital to thinking through the varied challenges that oral historians face in the field. These monthly listening circles, led by an intergenerational group of practitioners, will enable COHDS community members to build relationships while they share the issues that keep them awake at night. Talking through what is said or unsaid, the stories that have a beginning but no end, the tangents that lead to possibilities or dead ends, and the interpersonal dynamics that make collaboration possible or problematic are all part of a debriefing process that holds great potential for pushing the field forward. This is work that should not be done alone. All interview stories welcome!

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Come Walk With Us: Walkathon Fundraiser for “Award of Distinction in Oral History”
2026-09-25 12:30 - 17:00 | EV Atrium, 1515 Sainte-Catherine St. W., Montréal, Quebec, H3G 1S6, Canada
This year, “Team COHDS” will be joining the Concordia Shuffle – an annual fundraiser for student scholarships and bursaries – to help raise funds for our annual “Award of Distinction in Oral History.”
We are warmly inviting all members of our community to come and walk with us from Concordia’s downtown campus to Loyola on Friday, September 26. The shuffle will start at 12:30 pm at the EV Atrium on Sir George Williams Campus. A member of our team will be holding up a sign “Team COHDS”.
Join our team: If you liked to “shuffle” with us, we invite you to join our team (click on “Join Team”). COHDS-affiliated faculty will be donating $ 10 for each COHDS affiliate who will join us at the shuffle.
Support from afar: For those members of our community who are not based in Montreal or have prior obligations on September 26, if you were interested in making a small donation to our campaign, you could do so at “Donate Now”. Rest assured that 100 per cent of your donation will go towards our annual student thesis prize.
We look forward to walking with you!

Together-mess: Co-Crafting Family Stories Through Movement
2026-10-23 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
Picture credits: Eve Garnier, on the picture: Anita Saj, Signe Waldorff, Carina Raffel, Fatima Cerqueira and Martin Bélanger.

With Eve Garnier

This participatory workshop invites participants into the “hows” of Eve’s research-creation master NURT/FLOW, exploring family stories as a third-generation descendant through dance practices. Conceived as a laboratory, the space is filled with objects, and invitations to experiment, touch, sense, and play. Through movement explorations, DIY strategies, and silent exchanges, we will investigate memory, transmission, relationships, and the ethical challenges of engaging with stories and traces of those who are no longer there. Together, we will explore what it might be to ‘feel’ a story, to share it, and co-craft it through the moving body. Open to all bodies and abilities, each participant will be invited to engage according to their own abilities, curiosity, and desire. No dance experience is required.
If you would like to participate or learn more about the workshop, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. You can reach the facilitator at: egarnierchapel@gmail.com

The experiential, exploratory, and relational potential of dance is a deep source of inspiration in Eve Garnier‘s work. She is particularly interested in the power of the moving body as a carrier of stories and a mediator of lived experience. Based in Montreal / Tiohtià:ke / Mooniyang, she explores dance as a performer, teacher, researcher and artistic processes support. Of Franco-Polish heritage, she developed her career first in Denmark and later in Québec. Some influancial artistic collaborations are among others Marie Chouinard, Dominique Porte, Martin Bélanger, Marie-Claire Forté, David Dorfman (USA), Peter Mika (Slovenia/Spain), Tim Feldmann (Denmark), or Opera Royal of Denmark. She currently teaches technique, partnering, and interpretation at the Department of Dance at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), while pursuing a Master’s degree in the INDI program at Concordia University. Using a research-creation approach that combines dance and oral history, she explores how dance and movement practices can permeate, transform, and transmit family histories.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Listening Circles: Telling Interview Stories (Monthly)
2026-10-30 11:00 - 13:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
Facilitated by Anna Sheftel, Stacey Zembrzycki and Kay Ponthieux Stern, who are Kitchen Table Collective Members

Creating open, safe, generative, and generous spaces to tell interview stories is vital to thinking through the varied challenges that oral historians face in the field. These monthly listening circles, led by an intergenerational group of practitioners, will enable COHDS community members to build relationships while they share the issues that keep them awake at night. Talking through what is said or unsaid, the stories that have a beginning but no end, the tangents that lead to possibilities or dead ends, and the interpersonal dynamics that make collaboration possible or problematic are all part of a debriefing process that holds great potential for pushing the field forward. This is work that should not be done alone. All interview stories welcome!

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Récit des cicatrices
2026-11-12 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
Avec Marie-Josée Gicali

Trente ans après le génocide perpétré contre les Tutsi du Rwanda, les séquelles physiques et psychologiques demeurent profondément inscrites dans les corps, les esprits et la mémoire des personnes rescapées.
Cet atelier vise à partager avec le public la démarche entreprise pour recueillir les récits de personnes rescapées portant les cicatrices des blessures et des mutilations infligées durant le génocide. À travers la photographie de ces cicatrices et l’enregistrement audiovisuel de leurs témoignages, ce projet donne à entendre les histoires qui se cachent derrière chaque marque laissée sur le corps. Il cherche ainsi à préserver, transmettre et partager une mémoire vivante, en faisant des cicatrices les témoins d’une histoire individuelle et collective.

Marie-Josée Gicali (Ph-D) est rescapée du génocide perpétré contre les Tutsi au Rwanda, auteure et artiste-chercheure. Ses travaux portent sur la mémoire, la transmission et les récits du génocide. Chercheure indépendante et affiliée au COHDS, elle mène un projet de recherche photographique et documentaire sur les cicatrices visibles laissées par le génocide, soutenu par le Conseil des arts du Canada. Elle est également fondatrice d’EJO ARTS & CULTURE, un organisme dédié à la création et à la transmission de la mémoire par l’art, l’éducation et la recherche.

INSCRIPTION
Inscrivez-vous ici.Veuillez noter que tous nos événements sont gratuits et ouverts à toutes et à tous. Cependant, vous devez réserver votre place.
Pour participer à l’événement en présentiel évrivez à: cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

LIEU
Le CHORN/ALLAB sont situés sur le territoire non-cédé de Kanien’kehá:ka à Tiohtiá:ke/Montréal.
En personne à LB-1019 (salle Sunroom), Centre d’histoire orale et de narration numérique (COHDS), Université Concordia, 1400 boulevard de Maisonneuve Ouest, pavillon J.-W. McConnell (pavillon de la Bibliothèque).

Getting Personal: working with family stories
2026-11-19 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Anna Sheftel

Oral historians are increasingly using their recorders closer to home, to try and understand the lives and legacies of their own families. This is often in the context of violence, migration, and diasporic experience. We study our families not just for our own benefit, but also because we know that the personal is political, and that the lives of our own parents, grandparents and ancestors can help us to make sense of broader social, cultural and political dynamics. What does it mean to do very intimate historical work and then to share that with the world? In this workshop, we will discuss the opportunities and challenges of documenting family histories, including questions of silences, interpretive authority, intersubjectivity and who has the right to tell what stories.
Anna Sheftel is Principal of the School of Community and Public Affairs at Concordia University. She has published extensively on oral history methodology, ethics and pedagogy, with a focus on collaborative and community-engaged practices and listening to difficult stories. She is internationally recognized for these publications, most notably for Oral History Off the Record: Toward an Ethnography of Practice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), co-edited with Stacey Zembrzycki, which won the OHA’s 2014 Book Award, and for her article, “Talking and Not Talking about Violence: Challenges in Interviewing Survivors of Atrocity as Whole People,” which won the OHA’s 2019 Article Award.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Listening Circles: Telling Interview Stories (Monthly)
2026-11-20 11:00 - 13:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
Facilitated by Anna Sheftel, Stacey Zembrzycki and Kelann Currie-Williams, who are Kitchen Table Collective Members

Creating open, safe, generative, and generous spaces to tell interview stories is vital to thinking through the varied challenges that oral historians face in the field. These monthly listening circles, led by an intergenerational group of practitioners, will enable COHDS community members to build relationships while they share the issues that keep them awake at night. Talking through what is said or unsaid, the stories that have a beginning but no end, the tangents that lead to possibilities or dead ends, and the interpersonal dynamics that make collaboration possible or problematic are all part of a debriefing process that holds great potential for pushing the field forward. This is work that should not be done alone. All interview stories welcome!

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Introduction à l'histoire orale
2026-11-27 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada

The Roots of Digital Storytelling: A workshop in revealing meaning without defining it
2027-01-15 10:00 - 12:30 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Carolina Cambre

Visuality (and sound) has an important yet under-developed and under-theorized role to play in the relationship between learning, knowledge production, and transmission in the university. Tools like digital storytelling present one way to explore this dynamic. This workshop will review the roots of digital storytelling practices and provide ways for participants to explore developing digital stories either through narrative driven approaches or image driven approaches. Finally we will examine the implications for research, and the role that digital storytelling can play at different points in the research process.
Carolina Cambre is an award-winning artist, writer and educator at Concordia University. Her book, The Semiotics of Che Guevara: Affective gateways (2015), presents a series of encounters with the photograph, Guerrillero Heroico (1960) by Alberto Korda, its unique trajectory and endless renderings. Her research-creation practice has spanned the fields of visual anthropology, sociology and education as well as across a variety of artistic media.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Artmaking in Community: A Conduit for Testimony and Life Stories
2027-01-21 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With David LeRue

How can art be a form of testimony and storytelling? This hands-on and methodological workshop explores the possibility of using artmaking as a participatory approach to oral history practices, and considers what participants might share when being asked to create artworks rather than participate in a traditional interview. The workshop will begin with a brief overview of oral history projects integrating participant making, before narrowing on the presenter’s own approach called community-based research-creation, which uses the community art classroom as a way to engage participants through sustained making and dialogue as an alternative and supplement to one-on-one interviews. In addition to discussing the benefits of integrating artmaking as an oral history practice, we will consider the ethics of interpreting participant works and how to facilitate participants with diverse experiences and artistic backgrounds. We will conclude with a short drawing and interpretation activity to explore this approach in practice.

No expertise or experience with artmaking is required.

David LeRue is an Assistant Professor in Art Education at Concordia University. He is an artist, teacher, and researcher working between research-creation, qualitative research, and community-engaged pedagogical practices. His work theorizes the contradictions of community through developing and using inductive methods of participatory arts-based research informed by oral history to understand how places are experienced and interpreted on the grassroots level. Through using dialectical philosophies and community-engaged methods, he has come to understand community and places as inherently contradictory, subject to ongoing social and physical re-imaginings.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Working with Oral History Transcripts
2027-02-05 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Steven High

What can we learn from an oral history transcript? This workshop will introduce you to ways of interpreting oral history transcripts starting with the underlying interview dynamic. We will ground our analysis in a single interview transcript that we will circulate a week in advance. You should go through it before our workshop. We will then discuss different interpretative strategies as a group.

Steven High is lead co-director of COHDS and has published extensively on oral history methodology, theory and ethics. His books include Oral History at the Crossroads, Beyond Testimony and Trauma: Oral History in the Aftermath of Mass Violence, and Deindustrializing Montreal: Entangled Histories of Race, Residence and Class. He also led the prize-winning Montreal Life Stories project.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Capturing Voices: Recording Audio for History
2027-02-12 13:00 - 16:00 | Concordia University, LB-1042 (COHDS), 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal
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 workshop examines how microphone selection, placement, and recording environment shape the clarity, texture, and intelligibility of recorded sound.
Participants will practice recording in both indoor and outdoor settings, rotating between the roles of recorder and speaker while capturing short audio samples across varied acoustic conditions. Emphasis is placed on critical listening as a methodological skill. The workshop also introduces basic audio workflows, including offloading recordings, performing foundational edits using Audacity, and organizing audio files for long-term storage and archival preservation.
Framed around the documentation of oral histories, this session equips participants with practical and transferable skills for recording clear, durable, and ethically sound audio materials. No prior technical experience is required.

Frankie Ray (they/them) is a Montreal-based videographer and DJ, with professional experience across music festivals, music videos, and film productions, including Netflix, HBO, the NFB and Crave. Trained as a certified 2nd Assistant Camera in ICG669/IATSE, Frankie brings both technical expertise and creative insight to their work. Outside of their personal work, Frankie has always put a focus on accessible, hands-on training. At COHDS, Frankie combines their professional background with a commitment to supporting researchers, artists, and storytellers in capturing and preserving stories with care and technical confidence.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Beyond the Label
2027-04-02 17:00 - 19:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Gracia Dyer Jalea
What stories do your clothes tell? Inspired by Projet Friperie, this interactive workshop invites participants to explore fashion as a form of storytelling through the clothes we wear, keep, inherit, and choose. Together, we’ll reflect on identity, culture, community, and sustainability while discovering Montreal’s vibrant second-hand scene and circular fashion economy. The workshop concludes with a community clothing swap, where participants can exchange garments and the stories that come with them.

Bring one or two clean, gently used garments to swap, and be ready to share the story behind them.

Gracia Dyer Jalea is an award-winning change leader, aspiring artist and author, and a PhD candidate in Concordia University’s INDI program. Her research focuses on autoethnography, storytelling, and research-creation. A mother of twins, her work is shaped by her experiences as a Filipina-Canadian mother. She holds a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship and has long been affiliated with Concordia University’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory. For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca
LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.

Autobiography After Trauma: Survivors Writing Their Own Stories
2027-05-06 13:00 - 15:00 | LB-1019 (Sunroom), COHDS, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd W., Montreal, Québec, Canada
With Hamed Farmand

When survivors write their own stories, they gain greater control over what to tell, how to tell it, and what to leave untold. Self-writing can become an act of reclaiming voice, agency, and authorship after trauma. In this workshop, I will reflect on my own experiences, both as the author of a childhood memoir and as someone who accompanied my grandmother as she wrote her own life story. Survivors, like my grandmother, may have strong and understandable reasons for finding it difficult to trust the process of being interviewed for their oral history. During more than 90 years of life, she lived through the Second World War, the 1953 coup and the 1979 Revolution in Iran, the extrajudicial killings of her daughter and son-in-law, the executions of two sons and her pregnant daughter-in-law, the imprisonment of her eldest daughter, and her own arrest and torture. Audio recorders, pens, and written interviews caused her particular discomfort because these same tools had been used during her interrogations. Yet, through writing her own story, she was able to take control of the process and tell her experiences in her own words.

Hamed Farmand is a children’s rights activist, educator, author, and storyteller. He is the founder of Children of Imprisoned Parents International (COIPI) and a co-chair of the International Coalition for Children with Incarcerated Parents (INCCIP). Born and raised in Iran, he moved to the United States in 2010 and has lived in Tiohtià:ke/Montréal since 2022. His childhood was marked by profound loss: his mother was imprisoned for five years, his grandmother for three, and several members of his extended family were executed. For more than a decade, Hamed has dedicated his work to advocacy, public awareness, and supporting families affected by parental incarceration in the Iranian community and globally. He is the author of Missing Mum, a memoir about his childhood experiences of separation, loss, grief, and resilience.

REGISTRATION
Register now with this link
Please note that all our events are free and open to all, but registration is mandatory.
For any questions, please contact cohds.chorn@concordia.ca

LOCATION
In-person in LB-1019 (Sunroom), Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS), Concordia University, 1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, J.W. McConnell Building (Library Building).
COHDS/ALLAB is located on unceded Kanien’kehá:ka territory, in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal.
