2017 Summer Institute in Oral History, Columbia University
Oral History and Aging: Transmitting Life Stories of Being and Becoming across Cultures and Generations
June 5 – June 16, 2017

The Columbia Center for Oral History Research is proud to announce our 2017 Summer Institute Program: Oral History and Aging: Transmitting Life Stories of Being and Becoming Across Cultures and Generations.

The Institute will examine the social and cultural realities of aging across the life span focusing on ways that oral history opens up possibilities of meaning-making through the construction of narratives in a dialogical and relational framework.  Oral history, the practice of capturing narratives across temporalities, cultures, and personal identities is committed to understanding the ways in which people perceive aging around the world.

This institute will sharpen that focus by looking concretely at the challenges diverse populations face as they age, and examine the ways in which people can reframe their experiences and perceptions of aging through the construction of life history narratives. Themes will include intergenerational and cross-cultural storytelling, the role of oral history in health care and hospice care, growing old in situations of economic disparity, governmental and non-governmental supports and the professionalization of oral history in age-related health care settings.

Core faculty will include Peter Bearman, Mary Marshall Clark, Ronald J. Grele, Alessandro Portelli,  Linda Shopes, Amy Starecheski, and Cameron Vanderscoff in addition to featured speakers on the themes of the Institute.

Funding is available. Please submit fellowship applications below.

Priority deadline: February 28, 2017
Application deadline: April 1, 2017

For inquiries contact Institute Co-Directors: Mary Marshall Clark (mmc17@columbia.edu) and Cameron Vanderscoff (cvanderscoff@gmail.com).