Learning Circle

The Learning Circle started as an experiment in engaging with core ideas within oral history practice and reflecting on how we could absorb them into our practice.

The Learning Circle offers two kinds of programmes: a weekend programme on specific issues related to oral history and an longer month-long programme dedicated to reading a few key texts, engaging with them and exploring how we assimilate and integrate them into our approach to oral history. The first two Learning Circles met three times a month on a fixed day for a 90 minute online session for a three month period every time. The participants were Ph.D. and Masters students, film makers, archivists, NGO workers and those working with family members. The Learning Circles in 2025 were weekend programmes of 3 hours each day dedicated to key questions in oral history.

This year, I am pleased to offer an Extended Learning Circle from June to September 2026 for those who wishing to learn the practice of oral history in order to teach.

All participants are expected to have done some basic work in oral history. We will do a mini project and learn how to process it and then, how to transform what one learns into what one can teach.

While this is not a certified course, we will learn how to work on themes for the long interview, what enables a long-term engagement with your narrator, how to listen deeply and analyze what we listen to. This long duration programme will also enable participants to gain insights into editing, curation and organizing research.