Studying for a master’s in Oral History at Columbia University
The projects I am working on these days are related to democracy and its undermining, and traumatic memory in the personal/collective context, following the events of October 7.
Ultimately, my final project, which I will work on in the upcoming year, will be to build an oral history archive that will be accessible to the general public and relevant researchers in particular.
Oral history is a practice of recording interviews with people about their experiences in the past (and sometimes in real time), and oral historians are people who record, analyze and preserve these interviews. The practice is similar in many ways to journalistic work, but differs from it in a variety of significant ways, which challenges and expands my way of looking at documentary work. In the program we study the foundations of the practice (recording techniques, approaches to interviews, archival work and copyright), theory and ethics. The field is very interdisciplinary and as such is extremely diverse and offers a platform for work in the fields of academia, media, arts, and in the activist or community spheres.
In general, the most enjoyable thing for me, at the moment, is the opportunity to learn in a full and focused way - to devote time to reading, conversation and deep thought. And New York is also not bad at all!
Ultimately, my final project, which I will work on in the upcoming year, will be to build an oral history archive that will be accessible to the general public and relevant researchers in particular.
Oral history is a practice of recording interviews with people about their experiences in the past (and sometimes in real time), and oral historians are people who record, analyze and preserve these interviews. The practice is similar in many ways to journalistic work, but differs from it in a variety of significant ways, which challenges and expands my way of looking at documentary work. In the program we study the foundations of the practice (recording techniques, approaches to interviews, archival work and copyright), theory and ethics. The field is very interdisciplinary and as such is extremely diverse and offers a platform for work in the fields of academia, media, arts, and in the activist or community spheres.
In general, the most enjoyable thing for me, at the moment, is the opportunity to learn in a full and focused way - to devote time to reading, conversation and deep thought. And New York is also not bad at all!