Studies in Oral History, Issue No. 47

Editors: Skye Krichauff and Carolyn Collins

The Power of Oral History – Risks, Rewards & Possibilities

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Contributions are invited from Australia and overseas for the peer-reviewed articles section of the 2025 issue of Studies in Oral History, the journal of Oral History Australia (OHA).

Oral history can be powerful in so many ways: interviews generate potent emotions, recordings capture the power of voice as well as the power of silence, and multimedia productions engage and connect new audiences with the complexities of the past.

Fundamentally, oral history transforms the historical archive and challenges mainstream histories. It can shift traditional power dynamics, bring forth new voices and perspectives, reshape policies and politics, and shake up old certainties.

Yet these possibilities come with risk as well as reward – recording sensitive subjects is never easy. Creating an oral history production takes time, skill and care, and sometimes goes wrong. Imaginative re-uses of oral history recordings can raise ethical and legal complexities. And oral histories that disrupt accepted narratives can generate pain and conflict in families, communities and nations.

We invite papers that employ or interrogate oral history methodologies and illuminate aspects of the risks, rewards and possibilities of oral history. Contributions across the following themes are suggested (although not mandatory):

• Indigenous oral histories and oral traditions
• Oral history, culture and language
• Interpreting memory in oral history
• Transgressing boundaries with oral history
• Documenting diverse voices with oral history
• Histories of protest, activism and rights
• Contested memories and histories
• Oral histories of working lives and social class
• Migrant and refugee history
• Gender and oral history
• LGBTIQA+ oral histories
• Ethical issues in oral history
• Technology and oral history
• Archiving and oral history
• Oral histories of family, community or place
• Creative uses of oral history recordings
• Oral history in galleries, libraries and museums

As all articles are subject to anonymous peer review, pleasure ensure your submission contains no identifying material. Articles submitted to the Oral History Australia Editorial Board for peer review will first be assessed for suitability by the Editorial Board. Please consult the Guidelines for Contributors, the Peer review FAQ and Journal Style Guide for further information.

Word Limits and Deadlines

To be considered for peer review, articles should be no more than 8,000 words, including references. Publication of the issue is anticipated in late 2025.

The submission deadline for articles for peer review is 17 January 2025.

Submission

Send submissions to: Dr Alexandra Dellios, Chair, Oral History Australia Editorial Board, email editorialboard.journal@oralhistoryaustralia.org.au.

Reports

Submissions are also invited for the reports section of the 2025 issue of Studies in Oral History. Reports may describe oral history projects conducted by museum curators, heritage professionals, consulting historians, community historians, academic historians and more. Projects may have resulted in public outcomes such as websites, exhibitions, podcasts, theses, articles or books. Please note the reports section is not peer-reviewed; notes from the field, updates on exciting new work, or reflections on the process and/or outcomes of oral history projects are encouraged. Reports which relate to the issue theme are welcome but not mandatory.

Word limit: 1,500 words.

Deadline for report submissions: Monday 30 April 2025.

Please send reports to our Reports Editor Alexandra Mountain:  reports.journal@oralhistoryaustralia.org.au

Please note that while the reports are not peer-reviewed, we cannot accept all reports for publication and accepted reports will need to be edited for length, clarity and adherence to the Style Guide. Reports will be selected on the basis of quality of writing, the diversity of oral history perspectives showcased across the reports section and relevance to the special issue theme. Please consult the Guidelines for Contributors and Style Guide for further information.