Learning to Hear the Stories X:
A Ten-Year Retrospective

Friday, March 13, 2009
8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Kansas Union Ballroom

In 1999, the Hall Center  made its formal entry into the field of oral history with “Learning to Hear the Stories, an oral history workshop.”   Since that time, we have been proud to offer this free public event on the research and everyday workings of oral history. On March 13, 2009, the OHW will celebrate its tenth anniversary. This year’s theme is “Learning to Hear the Stories X: A Ten-Year Retrospective”. The all-day event will include how-to sessions for participants and presentations by respected oral historians, scholars, and students. 

Presenters include:

	Alessandro Portelli, one of the world’s leading scholars and practitioners of oral history is our featured guest. His talk is entitled “Globalization and Democracy: the Terni (Umbria, Italy) Steel Strikes of 2004-5.”  Portelli, a distinguished professor of American literature at the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University La Sapienza, was “loaned” to the City of Rome to serve as Managing Director for the Program for Protection and Enhancement of the Historical Memory. He also founded and chairs the Circle Gianni Bosio for the critical knowledge and presence of alternative popular culture. He is the author of numerous articles and books, most recently The Order Has Been Carried Out: History, Memory and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome (2007).  His acclaimed study, The Voice and the Text (1994), is one of the most important for understanding the ways in which the oral and the written have shaped the foundations of American literature and identity.
	Moya Peterson, RN, PhD, at the Kansas University Medical Center, will report on her project “The History of Army Nurses of the 77th Evacuation Hospital in World War II.”  Based in Kansas, the KU Med center unit served in North Africa, England, France and Belgium. Were it not for the five nurses and single doctor, the sole surviving members of the group, this history would have been lost. The project has recorded the stories of these brave men and women that enhance our knowledge of public history, but also provide invaluable lessons for the training of a new generation of medical professionals.
	Tami Albin, Undergraduate Instruction & Outreach Librarian at KU will present her work “Under the Rainbow: Oral Histories of GLBTIQ People in Kansas.” The project, funded by a two-year new faculty research grant, is seven months in, and Albin already has crisscrossed the state to interview 20 people, ranging in age from 25 to 80. And she's got people lined up, waiting to tell their stories.
	Stephanie Stokes Oliver will bring us an important missing piece of KU history. Her memoir, Song for My Father, tells the story of her father who attended KU undergrad and law school during the Depression. The sisters of Alpha Chi Omega broke with tradition by allowing Mr. Stokes to live in their trunk room when he couldn’t afford student housing.

To commemorate the tenth anniversary, a special break out “Are We There Yet: An Undergraduate Rite of Passage’’ will feature KU and Haskell students who have conducted oral history interviews and ethnographic research. Undergrads interested in submitting a paper for this panel should submit a 100-150 work abstract to Zanice Bond de Perez (Writing Center) at zbperez@ ku.edu by February 13. Preliminary consultation will be provided in advance of submission for those interested. A decade of achievement and oral history at KU is stronger than ever. 

Draft Schedule