Oral History Association 2019 panel presentation

1. From Historical Inquiry to
Happenings of Being: Oral History as a
Phenomenological-Hermeneutics
Brooke Blackmon Bryan
http://ohla.info | @whyherenow
OHA 2019, Salt Lake City

2. What, exactly, does a
phenomenologist with an audio
recorder do?

3. • teach writing
• fund, train and support 62 oral
history & digital storytelling
projects for glca/glaa
• talk with people about talking
with people

4. • oral history allows for conversation
beyond correspondence
• our being is “evanescent as vapor”;
slips away or recedes when we
attempt to put it to language
• the interview becomes a site of
struggle where new being happens

5. • when we ask historical questions,
we ask about how we are in the
world
• through a “struggle to language”
we connect to the ‘originary’
power of our past and bring
possible futures into view
• in so doing, we “burden being” in
the present

6. • radical history of oral history
• stance on best practices
• inter-subjective meaning making
• guiding logic informed consent
• minimalist interview method

7. Oral History in the Liberal Arts
(OHLA)
http://ohla.info