This third hop-on session in our series of short-form online workshops will focus on field-work: how to get into the field of oral history and how to sustain a life of “fieldwork.” Come hear from Oral History Summer School Founder/Director Suzanne Snider along with colleagues Meral Agish, Sady Sullivan, Jon Earle, and others about ways to train, network, budget, earn income and sustain your oral history practice and values. Learn more about these colleagues, below.

How/where does a newly trained oral historian find work? What kinds of jobs exist within the larger project of oral history? How much should/can you charge as an interviewer-for-hire?

Oral history colleagues will describe their work and opportunities (paid and volunteer) for those in attendance. We welcome Queens Memory Project Community Coordinator/oral historian Meral Agish, documentrian/oral historian Jon Earle (Voices of Lefferts) and Oral Historian Sady Sullivan (The Whiteness Oral History Project, Brooklyn Historical Society, Columbia University, Independent Oral Historian) among others to share their projects and ways to get involved.

All participants will receive the Zoom link via email the morning of February 26, prior to the workshop.

This workshop will be recorded. All participants will receive this recording within 2 days of the workshop.

Please note: Registration will close on Sunday, February 25

About Tuition tiers:

Hand Up: limited (up to 10 participants)
This tuition tier is reserved for people who could not attend this workshop without this subsidy, who do not have reliable or steady income or may be experiencing precarity/transitional employment, or who may be choosing this tuition tier because of categories of identity and/or circumstances that have impacted their earning opportunities. We earmark hand up seats as well as tuition-free seats in every workshop. These subsidized seats are funded through grants, fundraisers, and other members' tuitions.

Institutional/Standard/Supportive Rate: unlimited
This tuition tier is for participants who are employed full-time/salaried, who may finance vacations and/or dining out, and/or who receive professional development funds from an institution.

Guests:

Jon Earle is a podcast producer and oral historian. He has worked across mediums on a wide range of documentary projects, including about the science of resilience, corruption in Russia, undocumented immigrants, and soul music. He is alumnus of Oral History Summer School and Transom Story Workshop. jonearle.co
Voices of Lefferts is a community history project in Brooklyn, NY that engages residents in the Flatbush/Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhoods in community dialogue, writing, publishing, and oral history. Our collection of 50+ oral history recordings will be archived at the Center for Brooklyn History, part of the Brooklyn Public Library. voicesoflefferts.org

Meral Agish is the Community Coordinator of the Queens Memory Project at Queens Public Library, where she works closely with library colleagues, volunteers, and community partners, and leads monthly workshops on oral history interviewing. She recently completed her masters at Queens College’s Graduate School of Library and Information Science and chairs the Oral History Association’s Public Programming Committee. She got her start in oral history back in 2006, when she followed a personal recommendation to take one of Suzanne’s courses at the New School. www.meralagish.com 
The Queens Memory Project collects personal histories, photographs and other records of contemporary life in Queens, New York. Our goal is to raise awareness and a sense of ownership in the creation of our shared historic record, and our dream is that all Queens residents who visit these collections feel their experiences and perspectives are represented. We also provide training and materials for those wishing to contribute oral history interviews, photographs, or other records of their neighborhoods, families, and communities. https://queensmemory.org/

Sady Sullivan is an educator and oral historian with 15+ years experience building community engaging oral history projects. Sady created Crossing Borders, Bridging Generations, an award-winning oral history project, racial justice dialogue series, and digital humanities site exploring mixed-heritage identity in Brooklyn. Sady’s latest project documents ways in which people with European ancestry are working to unravel Whiteness and help end white supremacy. Sady practices politicized somatics and explores ways to bring more embodiment to her oral history work. SadySullivan.com