Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region is pleased to announce a call for papers and proposals for its 2016 annual meeting around this year’s theme: “Oral History and Technology.” The conference is to be held April 14 and 15, 2016, at the Hagley Museum & Library in Wilmington, Delaware.

While ‘technology’ is sometimes narrowly imagined as referring only to devices and inventions, we encourage presenters to interpret the theme broadly and to adopt a historically-informed definition of ‘technology.’ We encounter technology not only as a topic for exploration within our projects and interviews, but also as a tool of the trade in our work as oral historians.

This year’s keynote speaker will be Doug Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky and leader of the Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS) team.

Below are some possible presentation topics intended to stimulate creativity and broad
thinking across disciplines.

. Presentation of oral history projects that explore the application of a specific technique/technology in a particular field or industry (e.g., manufacturing, law enforcement, medicine, sports, the visual or performing arts)
. Decision-making around technology in oral history practice: for example, to videorecord or not?
. Presenting oral history work in a digital environment: technological, practical and ethical challenges
. Technology and preserving/accessing oral history in the archives
. Oral history as a technology of memory

The program committee invites proposals for panels or roundtables, as well as for individual papers. We welcome presentations that feature audiovisual components. We also welcome proposals for alternative session types, including: PechaKucha, lightning talks, debates and open discussions. We particularly wish to encourage proposals from graduate students.

Individual paper/presentation proposals should include a brief abstract of 250-500 words, a biographical summary about the author, and contact information. Roundtable proposals should include a 250-500 word abstract of the roundtable topic and brief biographical summaries for each invited participant, as well as contact information. Panel proposals should include a broad description of the panel theme and brief abstracts of 150-200 words for each paper, as well as biographical paragraphs and
contact information for each presenter.

Deadline for proposal submission is February 29, 2016. All submissions should be emailed with attachments to ohmar.conference@gmail.com. Please feel free to contact us at that email address at any time with questions.

We look forward to seeing you in Delaware in April!