Baylor News & Events

News from the Institute for Oral History

SHULDA EARNS OUTSTANDING STAFF AWARD

With great pride, the Institute congratulates Becky Shulda, recipient of Baylor's 2008 Outstanding Staff Award. Becky received a certificate and cash award during the annual Spring Staff Forum on January 20, 2009. She was chosen for the honor based on recommendations from students, faculty, staff, and friends who cited her support in fulfilling Baylor's mission, achievements in her job, and contributions through service to Baylor, the community, and her church. The Institute has long known Becky Shulda is a treasure. We are thrilled she has received the campuswide recognition she deserves.

BAYLOR HOSTS DIGITAL ORAL HISTORY WORKSHOP

	In the morning, workshop leaders Elinor Mazé and Rick Fair introduced standards and procedures for quality digital audio recording, while Stephen Sloan, Scott Myers, and Tony Tadey addressed advanced issues in digital audio and video recording. In the afternoon, Rick Fair and Tony Tadey demonstrated digitization of analog tapes and print transcripts, Darryl Stuhr discussed digital content management for making oral history accessible, and Stephen Sloan and invited video producers discussed digital oral history in public programming.
	The day included a Digital Showcase to afford participants an opportunity to listen-view-interact with creators of a variety of digital oral history projects. Highlighted in the showcase screenings were the Texas Legacy Project, presented by David Todd and Quinn Stewart, of Austin, and NASA's Johnson Space Center History Portal, presented by Sandra L. Johnson and Rebecca Wright, of Houston. Also, Shruti Varadharajan, a tenth-grader at Awty International School in Houston, demonstrated her award-winning video productions based on oral history interviews.
	Old friendships were renewed and new friendships formed at the digital workshop. Concluding the day was a live video lecture from Washington, DC, on "The Future of History," presented by Dan Cohen, director of the George Mason University Center for History and New Media and co-editor of Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web. In response to multiple requests from those who came to the workshop and those who could not come, the Institute recently added the Digital Oral History Workshop to its popular Workshop on the Web.

BUIOH ATTENDS PROFESSIONAL MEETINGS

During the fall semester of 2008, Institute faculty participated in meetings of the top two professional oral history organizations. On September 26, 2008, Elinor Mazé and Stephen Sloan, along with Tanya Finchum of Oklahoma State University, presented a methodological talk, "Organizing Oral History," at the International Oral History Association (IOHA) biennial meeting in Guadalajara, Mexico. Organized in collaboration with the University of Guadalajara and the Mexican Oral History Association, the program included presenters from over thirty countries and six continents.

Conveners centered the discussion for the conference on the topic, "Oral History – A Dialogue with our Times." Sessions highlighted the wide-ranging work of oral historians in diverse settings around the globe. Major themes of current oral history research discussed at the meeting included migration, memory, political movements, gender, and family. The conference offered a unique opportunity to hear the research of worldwide colleagues and to be introduced to new and creative approaches to oral history use. The next IOHA meeting will be July 6–11, 2010, in Prague, Czech Republic.

October 15-19, 2008, found Stephen Sloan, Lois Myers, and Elinor Mazé among friends at the annual meeting of the Oral History Association (OHA) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where the theme, "A Convergence of Interests: Oral History in the Digital Age," conformed prefectly with the Institute's current interests. All three attended workshops on digital oral history, chaired paper sessions, and took part in committee meetings. Here they are pictured aboard the paddleboat Keystone Belle, site of the OHA Presidential Reception. OHA meets next in Louisville, Kentucky, October 14-18, 2009.