About this Event
Join us for our Spring Open House, featuring:
Information session
Virtually meet OHMA students and alums
Presentation by Brodsky Award Winning Alum: Rebecca Kiil
Mini Oral History and Spontaneous Literature workshop by OHMA Interim Director Nyssa Chow
OHMA is the first program of its kind: a one-year interdisciplinary Master of Arts degree training students in oral history methods and theory. Our graduates work in museums, historical societies, advocacy organizations, media, the arts, education, human rights, and development. OHMA also provides excellent preparation for doctoral work in fields like anthropology, history, journalism, and American studies, or professional degrees in law, education, or social work.
Jointly run by the Columbia Center for Oral History Research, one of the preeminent oral history centers in the world, and INCITE, a lively hub for interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences, OHMA connects students with the intellectual resources of a major research university and with the intimate society of a small cohort of talented students.
During a year at OHMA, students learn the skills of digital audio and video production and editing, digital archiving, oral history project design and interviewing, and both historical and social science analysis. Working with an OHMA faculty member, each student is guided through the process of creating a thesis. Past projects have taken the form of academic and creative essays, film and audio documentaries, performances, exhibits, and multimedia websites. OHMA students also have access to elective courses taught anywhere within the University and exclusive oral history internship opportunities.
About Rebecca Kiil
Rebecca Kiil is a writer, oral historian, and filmmaker. Rebecca earned a B.A. in English from Wake Forest University and an M.A. in oral history at Columbia University, and she attended the Salt Institute for graduate studies in documentary film photography. For almost a decade, Rebecca has been working to document the life histories of family and community members who fled their homeland of Estonia during World War II to escape the brutal Soviet and Nazi regimes, then lived for several years in various displaced persons (DP) camps in Germany and Sweden before resettling in the U.S. Before Rebecca's maternal grandmother passed away in 2020 at the age of 102, Rebecca spent seven years filming, researching, and helping document her grandmother’s story, much of which her grandmother hadn't previously shared with anyone. In her oral history work, Rebecca explores themes such as intergenerational trauma, embodied memory, women and war, ethical loneliness, forced migration/displacement, and the refugee regime. Most recently, she has been exploring her obligation, both as human and oral historian, to individuals who have been forcibly disappeared or otherwise silenced and how the practice of oral history can be applied to capture their stories.
In 2023, Rebecca won the Brodsky Prize for Methodological Innovation for her thesis “Roots of Silence: How Retracing My Family’s WWII Escape Routes and Bearing Witness to Their Breaking of Long-Held Silences Unexpectedly Led Me to Compassion, an Open Heart, and My Voice."
Prospective students are also welcome to meet with the OHMA director or sit in virtually on one of our classes. Please send us an email (ohma@columbia.edu) to connect!
These events are open to all. For more information or if we can make any of these events more accessible to you, please contact Rebecca McGilveray at rlm2203@columbia.edu.