Shared, Oral & Public History Series

Oral History at the Crossroads

by Steven High

Published 1 January 2014

Over the span of seven years, hundreds of people displaced by mass violence told their stories to the Montreal Life Stories project. From the outset, the project's organizers sought to develop an alternative model to traditional oral history practice, one where community members "shared authority" as equal partners. Together, they challenged long-held beliefs about how oral stories should be collected and shared. As a sustained reflection on this large-scale experiment in collaborative research, Oral History at the Crossroads has methodological and ethical implications for scholars. It also provides a contemporary model for curating public history, pushing the field in new directions.

Going Public

by Elizabeth Miller, Edward Little, and Steven High

Published 15 November 2017

Going Public responds to the urgent need to expand current thinking on what it means to co-create and to actively involve the public in research activities. Drawing on conversations with over thirty practitioners across multiple cultures and disciplines, this book examines the ways in which oral historians, media producers, and theatre artists use art, stories, and participatory practices to engage creatively with their publics. It offers insights into concerns related to voice, appropriation, privilege, and the ethics of participation, and it reveals that the shift towards participatory research and creative practices requires a commitment to asking tough questions about oneself and the ways that people's stories are used.