Oral History Association

"Listening for a Change: North Carolina Communities in Transition"




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SOHP Hosts OHA 2000 (2000)

The Durham Marriot - Site of the OHA Meeting
The Southern Oral History Program served as the principal host for the 2000 annual meeting of the Oral History Association, which drew more than 450 scholars from around the world to Durham, North Carolina, from October 11-15. Plenary speakers at the conference, entitled "At the Crossroads: Transforming Community Locally and Globally," included Carol Stack, author of Call to Home: African Americans Reclaim the Rural South, and the Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, the producers of National Public Radio's "Lost and Found Sound." SOHP director Jacquelyn Hall participated in a closing panel discussion on oral history in the 21st century, along with Stack, Dora Schwarzstein, and Paul Thompson, author of the seminal Voices of the Past: Oral History.

Three conference sessions sponsored by the SOHP concentrated on research generated by the ongoing "Listening for a Change: North Carolina Communities in Transition" initiative. "African American Schools in Segregation and Desegregation" featured presentations from SOHP associates Kelly Navies, on her interview project on the history of Stephens-Lee High School in Asheville, and Pamela Grundy, on her exploration of the building of an interracial community at historically black West Charlotte High School. "'Listening for a Change': Community Research and Collaboration in the New Immigrants Project," moderated by SOHP associate director Joseph Mosnier, focused on the interview series about neighborhood change in Northeast Central Durham coordinated by SOHP affiliates Jill Hemming and Alicia Rouverol. The roundtable discussion "A County at the Crossroads: Chatham, North Carolina, 2000," led by project director Spencie Love, examined Chatham County as a microcosm for changes occurring throughout much of the South.

Coordinators of several other "Listening for a Change" projects presented their research during the conference. Charlie Thompson offered findings from his interview series on the impact of Hurricane Floyd as part of the panel "Disastrous Transformations: Hurricanes, Floods, and Community History." Former UNC-CH history professor Leon Fink, now at the University of Illinois at Chicago, presented "The Mayan Image in the Morganton (N.C.) Mind" during a plenary session on globalization and the transformation of communities. Folklorist Lisa Yarger, a collaborator on "Whole Lives: The Durham HIV Life Review Project," participated in a panel on memory, trauma, and illness in life review. And Kathryn Newfont, coordinator of "Environmentalism: Forests and Communities in Western North Carolina" discussed grassroots activism and the U.S. Forest Service during the 1980s as part of a session on occupational culture, sense of place, and community identity in a world economy.

In addition, the SOHP's Kathryn Walbert led a day-long workshop on the basics of oral history, and Mosnier presented a paper on North Carolina's new economy along with UNC-CH history professor Peter Coclanis. The conference program committee was co-chaired by Rouverol and SOHP alumna Mary Murphy of Montana State University, Bozeman, and SOHP administrator Beth Millwood headed the local arrangements committee with Cathy Abernathy.

The 2001 annual meeting of OHA will be held in St. Louis from October 16-21.



The Southern Oral History Program
Center for the Study of the American South
Love House and Hutchins Forum
410 East Franklin St., CB# 9127, UNC-CH
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-9127
(919) 962-0455
info@sohp.org