[MGSA-L] cfp Counter-Archives, Oral History Conference, 3-5 June, Thessaloniki

George Baloglou gbaloglou at gmail.com
Fri Feb 5 02:51:41 PST 2016


This sounds like a very interesting conference, and surely I will try to
attend. I am surprised, however, that all organizers either affiliated with
Aristotle University or otherwise located in Thessaloniki are listed with
"Salonica" instead of "Thessaloniki" in their address, despite their own
use of "Thessaloniki" instead of "Salonica" (please check list at the end
of this message)!

On another (minor) note, why not just write "Aristotle University"? Unlike
"Macedonia", there is only one :-)


http://auth.academia.edu/GAgelopoulos

http://auth.academia.edu/%CE%95%CE%BB%CE%AD%CE%BD%CE%B7%CE%99%CF%89%CE%B1%CE%BD%CE%BD%CE%AF%CE%B4%CE%BF%CF%85/Activity

http://uom-gr.academia.edu/EleniKallimopoulou

http://auth.academia.edu/MariaKavala

http://auth.academia.edu/PavlosPantazis

https://www.artsy.net/article/greekpavilion-about-the-curator-syrago-tsiara


On Wed, Feb 3, 2016 at 7:44 PM, Van Steen, Gonda <gonda at ufl.edu> wrote:

> Dear friends,
>
> Please see the call for papers attached for the upcoming Oral History
> Conference of 3-5 June in Thessaloniki. I also copied the text below (but
> some formatting may be lost).
>
>
>
> Thank you,
>
> Gonda
>
> *COUNTER-ARCHIVES: RETHINKING ORAL HISTORY FROM BELOW*
>
> *THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE GREEK ORAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION
> (GOHA)*
>
> PLACE: SALONICA, GREECE
>
> VENUES: Aristotle University of Salonica, Museum of Byzantine Civilization
>
> ORGANIZING INSTITUTIONS: GOHA, ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF SALONICA,
> UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA, HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF GREEK REFUGEES, MUSEUM OF
> BYZANTINE CIVILIZATION
>
> SPONSOR: ERT 3
>
> DATES: *3-5 * *June 2016*
>
> *CALL FOR PAPERS*
>
> “History from Below” has been the hallmark of oral history since the
> 1970s. Giving voice to subjects and social groups forgotten by official
> archives was perceived as an efficient tool to democratize history and to
> create a counter-archive able to challenge the master narratives of
> dominant memory.  This democratization effort did not focus on the
> narratives alone, but also on new ways of working with local communities,
> on empowering the powerless and on improving the accessibility of the
> counter-archives thus created. Through the 1980s and 1990s oral historians,
> taking into account early criticisms on the dangers of romantic nostalgia
> and naïve populism (Passerini 1979) in representing the powerless, have
> become more sophisticated in their analyses, by focusing on the
> co-construction of meanings in the interview and the role of subjectivity.
> Τhis move has greatly improved our understandings of memory.  On the other
> hand, the field of biographical research has over the last twenty years
> focused on the narrativity of biographies as social constructions and on
> the complex processes of “doing biography”. This work has produced an
> interesting theoretical and methodological framework for the empirical
> study of biographical self-presentations and their archival traces (CV’s,
> on-line videotaped life-stories, social media, personal blogs, etc.)
>
> Obviously, oral history cannot be reduced to a bottom-up perspective
> alone, neither do all oral histories constitute a “counter-archive”.  The
> narrative construction of lives is influenced both by personal experience
> and by public discourse. The notion of “counter-archive” has been recently
> explored in the context of documentary film (Amad, 2010) and the everyday
> feelings of trauma and sexuality (Cvetkovich, 2003), as a way of creating
> new archives that foster new public and political cultures, including
> cultures of public memory. Grassroots archives are emerging everywhere.
> What these archives have in common with the “counter-archive” of oral
> history is the construction and preservation of narratives of lived
> experiences independently of the grand narratives produced by state power.
> As the notion of “counter-archive” raises important questions about
> authority, documentation and publicity, it offers useful insights on the
> scope, the forms and the expressive means of historical research and the
> writing of history.
>
> Forty years since “history from below”, we now live in a very different
> world, dominated on the one hand by increasing social inequality and
> exclusion and on the other by the proliferation of memories in the public
> sphere, mainly through easily accessible digital media and in the arts.
> While both “history from below” and the “counter-archive” may seem even
> more relevant than in the 1970s, the same may be said of the early
> criticisms of “naïve populism”. In this context, the *Third International
> Conference of GOHA* invites participants to rethink critically these two
> notions, focusing in particular on the following questions:
>
>    - Do we still need “history from below”? If so, what are the promises
>    and challenges of this approach in the present context?
>    - How would we define today the notion of “below”? Who are the new
>    subjects, the new topics we need to include? How do these subjects
>    construct their biographies in their narrated lives?
>    - What is the nature of the new “counter-archives” in the 21st
>    century? Which are the main methodological and ethical questions raised in
>    the creation and dissemination of these archives?
>    - How can we engage our audiences more actively, promote critical
>    awareness of the world we live in and, ultimately, contribute to social
>    change?
>
> Against this background we invite proposals on the following sub-themes:
>
>    - Life stories  and mobility (refugees, migrants)
>    - Oral history and the arts (film, theatre, literature, music, fine
>    arts, photography)
>    - Work and unemployment
>    - Oral history and the use of urban space (buildings, monuments,
>    musea, sound-walks)
>    - Oral history, biographical research  and new subjectivities (e.g.
>    homeless, new social movements, LGTB, disabled)
>    - Testimonies of the present. Which memories should be preserved for
>    the future?
>
>
>
> All proposals for oral history-based contributions, including papers,
> panels, presentations, and displays should include the author(s) name,
> affiliation and email address and be submitted by *27 March 2016* to
> rvboe at yahoo.gr and tasoula at otenet.gr.
>
> Max. 250 words
>
> *Organizing Committee:*
>
> Riki Van Boeschoten (Chair of GOHA, University of Thessaly)
> Tasoula Vervenioti (Historian, coordinator Oral History Groups Athens)
> Yorgos Tsiolis (GOHA, University of Crete)
> Yorgos Angelopoulos (Aristotle University of Salonica)
> Vasilis Dalkavoukis (University of Thrace)
> Eleni Ioannidou (Historical Archive of Refugee Hellenism, Salonica)
> Eleni Kallimopoulou (University of Macedonia, Salonica)
> Maria Kavala (Aristotle University of Salonica)
> Pavlos Pantazis (Aristotle University of Salonica)
> Mayia Tsambrou (Aristotle University of Salonica)
> Syrago Tsiara (Museum of Contemporary Art, Salonica)
>
>
> Gonda Van Steen
> University of Florida
> Dept. of Classics and Center for Greek Studies
> 125 Dauer Hall
> Gainesville, FL 32611-7435
> Tel. 352-273-3796
> Fax 352-846-0297
>
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-- 

Γιώργος Μπαλόγλου -- Θεσσαλονίκη

http://www.oswego.edu/~baloglou (1988 - 2008)

http://crystallomath.wordpress.com (2009 - )
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