Our fall PSN season will kick off October 20th with a conversation about how to ask about money in an oral history interview.

Registration is open now!

Breaking the Taboo: How to Ask About Money

October 20th, 2:15-3:30 PM EST

Oral history interviews are spaces where we get to ask questions that might otherwise be off limits, but some taboos are hard to break. Talking candidly about money can be transformative for social justice oral history work, but can also be traumatic for some depending on their cultural, familial, or even personal history and experiences with money. Talking about money can help us to develop collaborative analyses of structural oppression, but it's not easy to do, especially across lines of difference -- race, class, age and others. In this chat we will develop strategies and best practices for talking about money in an oral history interview. We welcome those with lots of experiences doing this and those who want to work on their skills in this area.

Amy Starecheski is a cultural anthropologist and oral historian whose research focuses on the use of oral history in social movements and the politics of urban property. She is the Co-Director of the Oral History MA Program at Columbia University. She consults and lectures widely on oral history education and methods, and is co-author of the Telling Lives Oral History Curriculum Guide. She was a lead interviewer on Columbia’s September 11, 2001 Narrative and Memory Project, for which she interviewed Afghans, Muslims, Sikhs, activists, low-income people, and the unemployed. Starecheski is a member of the Core Working Group for Groundswell: Oral History for Social Change, where she facilitates the Practitioner Support Network. She received a PhD in cultural anthropology from the CUNY Graduate Center, where she was a Public Humanities Fellow. Her book, Ours to Lose: When Squatters Became Homeowners in New York City, is forthcoming in November, 2016 from the University of Chicago Press.

Amanda Hart is a Financial Capabilities lead program associate (and self-titled “Economic Empowerment Coach”) with Metropolitan Family Service, a Portland, OR-based non-profit whose mission is to help people move beyond the limitations of poverty, inequity and social isolation. Her work is part of a larger collaborative of culturally-specific and responsive non-profit partners whose focus is to develop more impactful, meaningful service by working closely together in one specified community. This community of focus, the David Douglas School District, has a wide range of immigrant and refugee populations represented and over 60 different languages spoken. Amanda recently transitioned into this financial role after working for several years within the David Douglas community school programs, so she is excited to use her relationships in the community to find thoughtful, inclusive, and connective ways to talk to people about money

And registration will open soon for our next two chats, so save the dates:

Learning from our Elders: Interviewing Activists from Past Generations

Co Facilitated by: Cindy Choung and Rachel Bernstein

November 17, 3-4:15 PM EST

Bringing Oral History, Art & Activism Together to Make Change Happen

Co Facilitated by: Leyla Vural and Eylem Delikanli

December 7 at 3-4:15 PM EST