Experienced oral historian Dr Deborah Shepard will help you create an oral history account of your family members’ life stories for posterity. September 2024 workshop has been cancelled.
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Experienced oral historian Dr Deborah Shepard will help you create an oral history account of your family members’ life stories for posterity. Guiding you through the stages of life review: interview and recording technique; key questions; trust building and the interviewer’s role as attentive listener sensitively facilitating the narration, her session will end on an experiential exercise, working in pairs as interviewer and narrator, to illustrate the process.
If you've ever thought of recording the life story of a beloved family member, or significant or favourite person this one-day workshop with its introduction to the gentle art of life review may be just what you need to ignite the process. Guiding you through the various stages of oral history production, Deborah will introduce you to the techniques and methodologies you need to create a meaningful oral history for your family archives, for publication and ultimately for posterity.
Morning and afternoon sessions will cover: how to prepare for the interview, interviewing technique and the personal dimension including trust building, ethical considerations and your role as alert listener; how to create timelines upon which to structure the interview and an understanding of the biographical arc; identification of themes and particular questions that might encourage spontaneity in the storytelling. Confidence will be acquired through an experiential component, working in pairs to 'interview' one another. Through this process each partner will have an opportunity to practice the art of listening deeply and also to experience the impact of narrating of your story to an interested and skilled listener.
Family genealogists/keepers of the stories, writers, auto/biographers and those people who yearn to capture and record some of the family stories before it is too late. No experience is required just a passion for storytelling and family history.
A4 paper and pen for note taking. Please come prepared with a short life story of your own to narrate to an 'interviewer'. Recording devices are not needed. Bring your lunch. Tea and coffee will be provided in the staffroom for breaks.
Dr Deborah Shepard is an Auckland biographer, oral historian and teacher of all forms of life writing. Three of her books Reframing Women, Her Life’s Work and The Writing Life were based on oral history interviews. She was consultant biographer at Mercy Hospice.
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Term Time: Monday - Wednesday 9:00am - 9:00pm
Thursday - Friday 9:00am - 3:00pm
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