OHA Annual Meeting Preview and Virtual Issue Launch

It’s once again that time of year when oral historians from across the globe unite for the annual meeting. Here we preview some sessions and events the editorial team is looking forward to.

By Janneken Smucker

We were supposed to all be in Baltimore for the Oral History Association Annual Meeting in fall of 2020. It’s gratifying after a few years of uncertainty and remote meetings that we can convene in the harbor of Charm City for the most welcoming of conferences, which brings together scholars, community organizers, archivists, students, educators, and oral history practitioners from every realm into our great big tent, centered on listening to the accounts narrators share in interview form. 

For our editorial team, this is a bittersweet occasion. We took Amtrak from Philadelphia to Baltimore Wednesday morning prior to a transition meeting we held with the new incoming OHR editorial crew, led by Holly Werner-Thomas and supported by Robert LaRose, Molly Todd, Sharon Raynor, Bud Kliment, who officially take over in 2024 (stay tuned for an interview with Holly). We have been at it for six years, faithfully attending annual meetings to convene with OHR’s editorial board, scout prospective authors by listening in on panels, staff our table in the exhibition hall, and most importantly, networking with oral history colleagues, old and new. 

You’ll find us in Baltimore at several events and sessions, including the Presidential Reception Thursday evening, and several panels. Please flag us down to say hi, and also introduce yourselves to Holly and team. 

As usual, we have published a virtual issue to mark the occasion of the annual meeting. OHR intern, Isabela Carvalho from West Chester University, has selected several articles from the OHR archive addressing the theme, with a focus on education and technology. Using articles from 1973 to 2023, her introduction traces the ways oral history educators have perceived the role of technology in the classroom.