Experienced oral historian Dr Deborah Shepard will help you create an oral history account of your family members’ life stories for posterity.
Experienced oral historian Dr Deborah Shepard will help you create an oral history account of your family members’ life stories for posterity. Guiding you through the stages of life review: interview and recording technique; key questions; trust building and the interviewer’s role as attentive listener sensitively facilitating the narration, her session will end on an experiential exercise, working in pairs as interviewer and narrator, to illustrate the process.
This one-day workshop, facilitated by biographer Dr Deborah Shepard provides an introduction to the gentle art of life review. Morning and afternoon sessions cover how to prepare for, research and conduct an interview; timelines and the biographical arc; identifying themes and posing questions that help shape the story; ethical dimensions and your role as alert listener helping the family member create a coherent narrative of their life.
Confidence will be acquired through an experiential component working in pairs to ‘interview’ one another, each partner experiencing the art of listening deeply and how it feels to tell your story and be heard.
Family genealogists/keepers of the stories, writers, auto/biographers and people who yearn to capture and record some of their family stories while they can. No experience is required just a passion for storytelling and family history.
A4 paper and pen for note taking. Please come prepared with a short life story of your own to narrate to an 'interviewer'. Recording devices are not needed. Bring your lunch. Tea and coffee will be provided in the staffroom for breaks.
Dr Deborah Shepard is an Auckland biographer, oral historian and teacher of all forms of life writing. Three of her books Reframing Women, Her Life’s Work and The Writing Life were based on oral history interviews. She was consultant biographer at Mercy Hospice.
You are invited to attend our opening address at 9am on Saturday 17 August 2024. Carole Beu from The Women's Bookshop will fire up the day with an early morning talk on her raves and faves. Have a cuppa, listen to Carole and meet others. Please register here so we know how many to expect.
Open Hours
Term Time: Monday - Wednesday 9:00am - 9:00pm
Thursday - Friday 9:00am - 3:00pm
School Holidays: When courses are running the office is open 9:00am - 4:00pm