Wendy Allen

In 2008, after retiring, Wendy Allen took a course in oral history and digital storytelling at COHDS given by Anna Sheftel and Michael Klassen. Her first project used an oral history approach to present portraits of the people at the heart of the international development projects she had worked with in Indonesia. She also made short videos documenting the stories of visiting scholars from Uganda at COHDS.
Since 2016 she has been participating in Digital Literacy projects led by Eric Craven (also a COHDS affiliate) at Atwater Library. Projects have ranged from using her photos to create a video about her time in China in the late 70s, to the COHDS projects, the “Promenade Parlante”, a place-based research-creation project in Shaughnessy Village and “La Ville Extraordinaire: Learning from older Montrealer’s urban knowledge.” A montage of videos she created for La Ville Extraordinaire from the interviews conducted in Mile End was presented at the Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises (MEM) and at Concordia’s 4th Space.
Since 2024, she has participated in two projects led by Eric Craven and funded by New Horizons for Seniors. “Ode to Public Transit”, is a short video about the Montreal Metro created with Caroline Filler with the support of Guillaume Jabbour, a COHDS affiliate and Grace Dart scholar, who composed and performed the music for the video. It was screened at Suspicious Fish, a Verdun community organization and posted on the MEM website. In 2025/2026 the seniors group was based at Concordia’s engAGE, where Eric is now the Coordinator. Francis Léveillé, who also received a Grace Dart scholarship, proposed creating digital games for this project. The games included one about “downsizing” based on the group’s personal stories.
This year she and Kelly Drukker shared the position of Community Representative on the COHDS Board.