Oral History for Educators

Dates: March 14 - 17, 2025 [ONLINE]
Instructor: Suzanne Snider
Schedule: See the daily schedule below. All times are listed in ET
Tuition: $0 - $780

This workshop is designed for educators who want to bring oral history into their classrooms and learning spaces. We’ll begin with a rigorous introduction to oral history theory, methods and practice before reviewing existing curricula and projects as a jumping off place to design our own curricula/projects.

We’ll think about how oral history’s best practices dovetail with a range of learning objectives, seizing upon the field’s potential to support active listening, ethical documentary practice along with considerations of: primary sources, myth, memory, the archive as a future history, silence, talking across difference, problem solving, song/music, shared authority, collaborative analysis and historiography. Participants will be guided through a design process with a chance to workshop their emergent ideas with the group.

How can we collaborate with students in ways that honor their abundance of lived experiences, and offer more mutable spaces for social research, analysis and generally thinking out loud?

Note: The example curricula will be directly relevant for learners age 5 and up through undergraduate, graduate and adult learning classrooms, though we welcome early childhood educators, as well. Please contact us with any questions about the appropriate fit of this workshop or other workshops.

We are accepting applications for two (tuition-free) fellowship seats with priority to educators of color and/or educators working in the Hudson area (K-12).

Schedule: 16 hours total
March 14: 5 PM - 9 PM ET
March 15: 10 AM - 4 PM ET
March 16: 3 PM - 6 PM ET
March 17: 5 PM - 8:00 PM ET

Tuition:
$0: Fellowship [2 seats, read more below]
$500: Hand-Up [Limited, up to 2 participants]
$650: Standard [Up to 20 participants]
$780: Institutional [Up to 20 participants]

Tuition covers instruction, guest instruction, e-reader, OHSS workbook (digital) and other forms/resources, plus access to our alumni newsletter/network.

Tuition Fee Structure
Thank you for reviewing our tiered fee structure, which reconciles our wish to make the training increasingly accessible with our need to cover staff labor and the rising costs of our materials. Please read the descriptions below and be in touch with us (info@oralhistorysummerschool.com) if you would like support selecting your tuition tier.

Fellowship: $0, 2 participants
For this workshop, we are accepting applications for 3 (tuition-free) fellowship seats with priority to educators of color and/or educators working in the Hudson area (K-12). If you are eligible based on these criteria and cannot attend at the standard tuition rate, please select this option.

Hand Up: $500 (+ 3% processing fee), limited (up to 2 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, who may be choosing this tuition tier because of categories of identity and/or circumstances that have impacted their earning opportunities, or who work in under-resourced economies (education, social work, etc.). 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.

Independent/Subsidized: $650 (+ 3% processing fee), unlimited (up to 20 participants)
This tuition tier is for participants without institutional support, without a salary, and/or for those who work in under-resourced economies (education, social work, etc).

Institutional/Standard/Supportive Rate: $780 (+3% processing fee), unlimited (up to 20 total participants): 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.

Note: As a small organization, we maintain a strict cancellation policy. Tuition is non-refundable and non-transferable for withdrawal or cancellation