Nordic Voices: online workshop

Nordic voices: The use of oral history and personal memories in public history settings (2022-2024)

NORDIC VOICES seeks to increase the use of oral histories, life narratives and personal memories in Nordic cultural institutions by collaborating with leading experts from both academia and various cultural institutions. Compared to many other countries, the use of personal sources in Nordic cultural institutions and online archives is limited, because all the Nordic countries have strict personal data acts. The first NORDIC VOICES workshop “Oral history and personal testimonies in museums” will be held in autumn 2022 in Copenhagen, Roskilde and Malmö. The second workshop “Oral histories, life stories and analysing significance in museums” will be held in autumn 2023 in Turku and Paimio. Additionally two online workshops will be held, the first “Significant literature on personal testimonies as museum communication” in spring 2022 and the second “Sustainable and transformative futures of memory practices and institutions” in spring 2023.

You can still sign up to the first online workshop:

Online reading circle: Personal testimonies as museum communication

April 26 2022 14.00-16.00 (UTC+3)

14:00-14:15 Anne Heimo (University of Turku) and Anne Brædder (University of Roskilde): Welcome and introduction to the NOS-HS network “Nordic Voices: The use of oral history and personal memories in public history settings.

14:15-14:30 Introductory round

14:30-14:40 Break

14:40-15:50: Discussion of the two texts, introduced by Iben Vyff (Museums of Elsinore & Roskilde University) and Anne Brædder.

15:50-16:00 Anne Brædder: Wrapping up and final remarks

The reading circle will take place via zoom. Please register with Anne Brædder by April 22, 2022 if you wish to participate: annebra(@)ruc.dk. The zoom-link will be sent to registered participants on April 25, 2022. If you have trouble accessing the texts, please be in contact.

The two texts are:

  1. Anette Day (2009) “‘They listened to my voice’: The refugee communities history project and belonging: Voices of London’s refugees” in Oral History vol. 37:1 pp. 95-106
  2. Andrea Witcomb (2019): “Oral history and First-person Narratives in Migration Exhibitions: Tracking Relations Between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’” in Darian-Smith and Hamilton Remembering Migration pp. 203-217.