Virginia Woolf and Dame Ethel Smyth; photo courtesy of NYPL Digital Gallery

Listening to Women:

Documenting Women’s Lives through Oral History

a six week non-credit course at BHS

The Brooklyn Historical Society’s oral historian Sady Sullivan leads a seminar this spring (March 24 – May 5, 2010) introducing the practice of Oral History as an historical methodology, a unique narrative genre, and a tool in the reconciliation of social injustices.

The course is interdisciplinary, drawing from history, sociology, memoir, and gender studies.  We will examine oral history in all its forms — audio, video, print, and exhibition — and in a variety of settings — museums, schools, archives, performance, radio, and online.  In particular, we will consider the dynamics of listening to, recognizing, and validating the voices of women, who may not know their stories have an audience.

In addition to learning the theory and background of oral history, students will learn the practical and technical information needed to conduct their own interviews.  View syllabus.

Admission is limited to 15 participants.  $250 (BHS members $200)

Register online here (Full)

For more information visit BHS Oral History.