The 19th edition of the International Oral History Association Conference began on Monday. The conference that has been organised by the Oral History Association of India in association with the International Oral History Association will be held till July 1 at the Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
The conference is themed around “listening, speaking and interpreting” of oral history. The organisers hope the broad brief will allow for interdisciplinary approaches to oral traditions and oral history as seen by anthropologists, geographers and social scientists.
“The basic tenet of oral history is that it is democratic because it gives voices to people who have been excluded from mainstream narratives,” said Avehi Menon, curator of the Centre for Public History and treasurer of OHAI.
Reflecting this commitment to neglected communities, the abstracts of the papers to be presented at the conference touch on narratives related to caste and gender. The event also features exhibitions concerned with similar themes, including accounts of migrant women in Nepal and women, who witnessed the Sri Lankan civil war.
As the IOHA is a bilingual association, the conference accepted projects in both Spanish and English. Translators will be present at all times to facilitate comprehension for Spanish and English speakers alike.
While the conference is primarily an academic symposium, the event is also intended to be a celebration of oral traditions in performance. Some of these performances include a film screening of The Walnut Tree, folk singing by Moushumi Bhowmik and a puppet show curated by the Antara Artists’ Collective. In addition, evenings have been set aside for panels for public interest on a variety on topics ranging from environmental disasters to archiving and postcolonial oral histories. For more details, contact 49000800.
