The Oral History Association became a global partner of the Forum of Oral History of Ukraine

The Oral History Association (OHA), based in Texas, became a global partner of the first offline meeting of Ukrainian and international documentation initiatives – the Forum of Oral History of Ukraine. The Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, the initiator of the Forum, is the first representative of Ukraine in this community.

At the event, which will be held on October 10, 2023 in Kyiv, the Executive Director of OHA, Stephen Sloan, PhD, historian, professor at the Baylor University in Texas, will deliver a keynote speech.

Dr. Sloan specializes in oral and public history. His first academic position was as co-director of the Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage at the University of Southern Mississippi. In 2007, he became a professor in the Department of History and the Director of the Institute for Oral History in the Baylor University. In the community of oral historians, Dr. Sloan is the Executive Director of the national Oral History Association.

The professor is a member of historical organizations, an author of books and articles on oral history and the Second World War. He worked with concentration camp liberators and genocide survivors. He was given numerous awards for historic preservation and oral history projects.

Membership in the Oral History Association is another step in the work of the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation in the international community. Thanks to this cooperation, the testimonies of Ukrainians about the war will be heard in the world. Since 1966, OHA has been uniting teachers, students, historians, archivists, librarians and cinematographers. In 2022, the Association condemned Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, noting: "The goal of this aggression is to make the history of the Ukrainian people invisible." The community supports the work of those documenting Russian atrocities.

Three panel discussions are planned as part of the Forum of Oral History of Ukraine, during which participants will discuss various aspects of documenting war experiences. The event is an initiative of the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, which documents firsthand testimonies of civilians about the war and has already collected more than 85,000 testimonies.

The Forum will be held in partnership with the USC Shoah Foundation and the Oral History Association, with the support of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University (Lublin).
Participation in the Forum is free and possible with prior registration and confirmation from the hosts. Registration is available at https://forms.gle/UB8Z1c8LaZ56Nnpt8

and is open until October 8, 2023.

For press accreditation issues, please contact Olha Nosyk at [email protected].

For registration and additional questions, contact Volodymyr Kapustin at [email protected].

Follow the news of the Forum on its Facebook page.
and on the website of Museum of Civilian Voices.