In this specialized Project Design workshop, OHSS director and founder Suzanne Snider will train a project team from Middlebury College and Kolot Chayeinu for an oral history project of Kolot Chayeinu, a non-denominational Jewish congregation in Brooklyn, NY. This day-long training includes mini-presentations, conversation, small group exercises, and supportive “lab time” during which participants will work with Project Design prompts and workshop their ideas-in-progress for feedback. 

Project Design is a dynamic phase of oral history practice, giving oral historians a chance to discipline their thinking, address ethical challenges, identify sites for potential collaboration, assess their resources, define “success,” and brainstorm potential future uses beyond the archive.

We can think of Project Design as our project’s “superego,” standing in stark contrast to the wild and woolly nature of narrative, itself. Project Design makes explicit our motives, project rules, strategies, workflow and potential problems. Working on our Project Designs at the front end can be enlivening and revelatory when developed in chorus with others. “Problems” become our guides and part of our projects’ ultimate resolution.

This event is closed for public registration. Project Design workshops may be tailored for other organizations seeking guidance for a current or future project. Please visit https://www.oralhistorysummerschool.com/contact to submit a proposal.