MIDDLEBURY — The Vermont Folklife Center is hosting a daylong workshop, “Storytelling for Social Change,”on Friday, Sept. 9, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. led by director of education Kathleen Haughey.
Storytelling, oral history and ethnography can be powerful tools for the documentation of voices, memories and histories. They can also be catalysts for activism and social change. This workshop will explore the ethics and techniques of oral history, ethnography and storytelling as activist research methodologies.
Attendees will be introduced to these three merging methodologies through a combination of short media pieces and discussions, and will learn the basics of corresponding skills such as interviewing, story circle facilitation and ethnographic observation. The workshop will also cover the technical aspects of storytelling for social change, providing an introduction to minimal resource audio recording tools.
In addition to developing attendees’ collaborative research abilities, this workshop seeks to expand attendees listening skills — and by extension, interviewing skills — while also encouraging attendees to consider the challenges, possibilities and ethics of representation. The workshop will conclude with a discussion of project ideas.
Haughey has a diverse background in education, ethnomusicology, collaborative ethnography and public humanities administration. As a Ph.D. student in ethnomusicology at Brown University, Haughey co-led an audio and video documentary project with Mbyá-Guarani musicians in southern Brazil. Haughey also has years of experience as an educator, having taught in both K-12 and higher education settings.
The tuition for the workshop is $95, and the registration deadline is Sept. 8. To register, call 802-388-4964. The workshop will be held at the Vermont Folklife Center’s headquarters building at 88 Main Street in downtown Middlebury.
The Vermont Folklife Center’s mission is to broaden, strengthen and deepen our understanding of Vermont and the surrounding region; to assure a repository for our collective cultural memory; and to strengthen communities by building connections among the diverse peoples of Vermont.