Instructors: Suzanne Snider
Location: Sylvan Motor Lodge (Hillsdale, NY)
Tuition: $925 standard tuition; $1250 institutional tuition (does not include lodging cost and $25 materials fee)
Oral History Summer School will return this fall with our first in-person workshop since the pandemic.
Come all ye budding oral historians, radio documentarians, writers, filmmakers, media advocates, and photographers who wish to make of use of oral history in your practices. This immersive upstate New York workshop is a rigorous introduction to the field of oral history. Over the course of 4 days, we’ll cover interview techniques, project design, and recording tutorials, plus sessions dedicated to ethics, trauma, advocacy, archives, and other related topics. This workshop is a great opportunity to jump-start a project in a supportive environment, or to get this training under your belt for future projects with the benefit of deadlines and peer critique. Participants will be conducting interviews throughout this long weekend. No experience necessary.
We will be centered at a unique location, the Sylvan Motor Lodge, which will allow for gathering, learning and cooking outdoors, weather allowing—with common spaces in the Lodge for indoor sessions. OHSS will be taking over the entire motor lodge for the duration of the workshop. In terms of boarding, this space will accommodate about 9 participants, single occupancy, with the option of double occupancy for people who enroll together. Additional participants may commute (with a commuter/facilities fee) or will be directed to additional housing. Covid/safety protocols will be in place. All participants must be fully vaccinated and boosted (Those unable to be vaccinated may contact OHSS about alternate precautions) and will agree to test into the workshop and during, with a frequency determined by OHSS closer to October.
Tuition: $925 standard tuition; $1250 institutional tuition (does not include lodging cost and $25 materials fee).
Tuition includes: 4 days of instruction, several group meals, snacks, morning coffee/tea service, and use of equipment during workshops.
Transparency statement: We seek to educate all participants about our overhead expenses so they might appreciate how we arrive at these tuition numbers. The overhead expenses that figure into the current tuition tiers include: site rental, administrative hours/wages, food service from local purveyors, curriculum development, teaching hours, printing, office supplies and equipment, honorarium, staff housing, staff travel (train/gas), staff food during the workshop, documentation/photography, Covid tests and masks for staff, and a scholarship fund. These are just some of the expenses that go into the overall creation of this workshop. Collectively, we incur additional expenses that we do not expect participants to cover, including childcare, research materials, and professional development to name a few.
Your $25 materials fee contributes toward: an OHSS workbook, e-reader and OHSS tote bag.
Lodging:
$140/night (with an option to share a double occupancy room for $100/night per person if students choose to register together). Lodging costs cover use of facilities including classroom space, indoor and outdoor kitchens, pool (seasonal), fire pit, and other amenities.
Students who are not staying on-site will be asked to contribute a $150 commuter fee for use of the lodge facilities (including indoor/outdoor kitchens and meeting space). All participants are welcome to hang out onsite during the course of our workshop.
A detailed schedule will be provided ahead of time for participants.
We are currently accepting applications for this workshop and will begin reviewing applications on April 25. We will get back to applicants within two weeks of your submission. Tuition and housing payment are due upon acceptance.
Covid:
We seek to create an accessible space and opportunity for as many students as possible. This means that we will be creating and following a Covid safety plan that deeply considers those who may be immunocompromised or those who will return to immunocompromised family members after the workshop. These protocols include rapid testing prior to group gathering on the first day, utilizing our outdoor location as much as possible, weather permitting, and practicing indoor masking unless actively eating or drinking. Please consider these group agreements as you make any plans towards joining us this fall.
Cancellation Policy:
As a small organization, we maintain a strict cancellation policy. Tuition is non-refundable and non-transferable. We are working hard to make an in-person workshop possible during a global pandemic. We ask participants to make their travel arrangements with Covid-related contingencies in mind. Given the workshop’s built-in considerations around Covid, we fully expect to run the workshop regardless of the pandemic’s twists and turns over the next six months. That said, we acknowledge that participants may have a range of responses to the risk involved in travel. While we cannot refund tuition/housing, we encourage travel insurance if you have any concerns that you may need to cancel.