Please join us for an Oral History M.A. program open house on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. in Knox Hall 509. Refreshments will be served.
OHMA OPEN HOUSE
- Information session
- Learn about our new Future Voices Fellowship
- Meet OHMA students and alums
- Presentation by Fernanda Espinosa
- Mini-interviewing workshop, taught by OHMA Co-Directors Mary Marshall Clark & Amy Starecheski
OHMA is the first program of its kind: a one-year interdisciplinary Master of Arts degree training students in oral history method and theory. Our graduates work in museums, historical societies, advocacy organizations, media, the arts, education, human rights, and development. OHMA is also 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 or capstone project. 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.
In this open house, OHMA student Fernanda Espinosa (2015) will be presenting a portion of her recent work. Fernanda is an oral historian based in Brooklyn, New York. She has been generating, listening, and interpreting oral histories to inform creative public interventions that bring visibility to social justice issues and that aspire to act as platforms for resistance and dialogue.
Fernanda co-founded Cooperativa Cultural 19 de enero (CC 1/19), an art and oral history collaborative and is a co-founder and Steward of the group People’s Collective Arts//Colectivo de Arte Popular. Most recently, she was also a Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies fellow.
In her presentation, she will be speaking about "Hogar de la Distancia" (Home of Distance), a project she worked on through the CC 1/19 collaborative for which she interviewed other immigrants from Ecuador and then created audiovisual portraits.
Prospective students are also welcome to meet with the OHMA directors or sit in on our classes leading up to the open house. Please send us an email (ohma@columbia.edu) to connect and plan your visit!
A brief reminder that all attendees of our One-Day Oral History Training Workshops on Saturday, January 28 receive an application fee waiver to OHMA. Let us know once you've submitted your application so that we can send the waiver to Columbia's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Please review our admissions page for further information leading up to our priority deadline on Wednesday, March 1 and RSVP to our Eventbrite and Facebook event pages if you are able to join our open house.
We looking forward to reviewing your applications and meeting you in person on the 26th!