Oral History and Life Stories Network, European Social Science History Conference
Vienna, Austria
Deadline for submission of proposals: 15 May 2013
Theme: „Crises and ruptures in memory and narrative“
The Oral History and Life Stories Network has become the major regular international forum for European oral history and life story researchers and is currently one of the largest, friendliest, and most popular networks of the European Social Science Conference.
We invite proposals for the Vienna ESSHC-conference on 23-26 April 2014 both for individual papers and for sessions. Sessions can have various formats: panels, round table discussions, presentations in other media followed by discussion.
We invite contributions discussing conceptual and methodological issues related to the representation of crises and ruptures (private, public, personal and/or political) in oral history with specific reference to memory and narrative. We welcome contributions from both oral historians and life story practitioners but with the focus on oral testimonies.We are especially encouraging contributions addressing disrupted memories and silences. This might be with reference to place or to the relationship between the local and global and/or between individual and social memory. We would hope for analyses of positive as well as negative impacts of crises and ruptures. We would welcome proposals addressing the following issues:
- Ruptures and Crises: Making sense of the past or rewriting history?
- Rupture, repressed memories and trauma
- Crises and positive changes in re/constructing identities
- Breaking with the past and reshaping memory
- Narratives and memories of globalization and resistance
- Transnational and national narratives of Europe
- (Re)presenting selves and others: multiculturalism, crises and memory
- ‘Composure’ and ‘discomposure’ in the construction of narratives
In addition we would also like to see presentations that:
- Explore methodological changes and challenges for working and researching with oral history in different disciplinary fields
- Address challenges facing the oral history method; including how attitudes to interviewing and being interviewed have changed; new ways of analyzing interviews; as well as approaches to archiving
- Compare written texts with oral sources in relation to the themes listed above
- Discuss the social function of oral history archives in relation to crises and historical disruption (including re-use of interviews produced by earlier projects)
- Explore emotions, sensory and embodied memories in relation to the themes above.
Finally, we would like to encourage specific panels on oral history and its use in education, and on research combining oral history and audio-visual research (again with reference to this year’s theme of rupture and crises).
Please send your proposals to Graham Smith, Andrea Strutz and Timothy Ashplant. Upon submission you must also pre-register on the conference website where more general conference information is available. Panel proposals should be submitted by the intended chair(s) of the panel, and include details of each of the papers proposed. The deadline for sending your abstract is May 15, 2013.
2014 Oral History and Life Stories Network Chairs: Graham Smith , Andrea Strutz , Timothy Ashplant .
2014 Oral History and Life Stories Network Advisory Panel: Helga Amesberger, Joanna Bornat, Gerhard Botz, Brigitte Halbmayr, Ela Hornung, Bea Lewkowicz, Albert Lichtblau, Alexander von Plato, Sandro Portelli, Penny Summerfield, Miroslav Vanek.
Please see the ESSHC website for further information on the conference:  
For further information email Andrea Strutz andrea.strutz@uni-graz.at
Source: H-Net
Number of Visits: 6661
The latest
- 100 Questions/ 30
- The Story of a Street Classroom
- Validation: Challenges and Necessities
- Memories of Mr. Jalal Setareh
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 30
- 100 Questions/ 29
- Theory One: “The Structural Duality of Opportunity–Threat in the Government’s Entry into Oral History”
- The 373rd Night of Memories – Part 7
Most visited
- Theory One: “The Structural Duality of Opportunity–Threat in the Government’s Entry into Oral History”
- 100 Questions/28
- The 373rd Night of Memories – Part 7
- From Revolutionary Circles to the Military Arm of the Islamic Government
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 29
- 100 Questions/ 29
- Third Regiment: Memoirs of an Iraqi Prisoner of War Doctor – 30
- Memories of Mr. Jalal Setareh
Photo Album from The Doctor of fly
The Doctor of fly, authored by Fatemeh Dehghan Niri, presents the memoirs of Dr. Mohammad-Taqi Khorsandi Ashtiani, Professor Emeritus and a subspecialist in Otolaryngology at Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Compiled within the framework of oral history, the work recounts different stages of his life—from childhood and years of ...The Beating Pulse of a Nation at the Moment of Nowruz
Every year, in the days and nights leading up to Nowruz, Shohada Square had a special charm. A few days before the New Year, the shops would fill with customers, and street vendors would take over the sidewalks. You could find everything in their stalls (from items for the Haft Sin table, candles, goldfish, and spring flowers to clothes, bags, and shoes).The Editor's Missing Place on the “Deck”
The book From Deck to Heaven offers a relatively fresh approach to examining the role of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army Navy (AJA) during the eight years of the Sacred Defense, published under the “Oral History of the Islamic Revolution” series. To compile this book, the esteemed author has utilized documentary research (referring to relevant archival centers and selecting documents) and field research ...An Exceptional Haft‑Seen Table
I wanted to celebrate the new year with my family. Together with two relief workers I boarded buses designated for transporting the wounded to Choubideh and received our mission orders. We waited for a helicopter to take us to Bandar Imam Khomeini. I was stationed near the helicopter’s touchdown zone and was slight in build. As the helicopter was about to land, I could not steady myself; the breeze generated by the rotor blades lifted me off the ground.
