Oral History Association of India

21/09/2025

The deadline for the submission of abstracts has been extended to 30th September.

Call for Papers

We’re thrilled to announce the 11th Annual Conference of the Oral History Association of India (OHAI) in collaboration with the Centre for Kachchh, Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai!

Theme: Desert Dialogues: Oral Histories and Echoes of Arid Past

Dates: 5–7 February 2026

Venue: Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumba

This year, we gather to listen to voices from desert and arid landscapes—stories of migration, mobility, memory, resilience, and survival—and their afterlives in urban spaces.

🔗 Abstract submission by 30th September. Check details in bio.

19/09/2025

Call for Papers

We’re thrilled to announce the 11th Annual Conference of the Oral History Association of India (OHAI) in collaboration with Centre for Kachchh, Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumbai!

Theme: Desert Dialogues: Oral Histories and Echoes of Arid Past

Dates: 5–7 February 2026

Venue: Somaiya Vidyavihar University, Mumba

This year, we gather to listen to voices from desert and arid landscapes—stories of migration, mobility, memory, resilience, and survival—and their afterlives in urban spaces.

🔗 Abstract submission by 20th September. Send you abstracts here: https://forms.gle/G6KCzZ3ohE9W9CAm6

Click here for more information: https://ohai.info/11th-ohai-conference-2026/?fbclid=PAb21jcAM5h0RleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABp2OxOZMffVQdH3ZhfjmBQEyOF7JzVnZHzyIWoH0NZxXk7yXdGwecM12UyHZz_aem_OTzqW-FvwUaOT82dkgF73w

18/09/2025

📢 Our Next OHAI Adda

Join us as we welcome Dr. Christine Zenith Mylliemngap, Assistant Professor of History at Saint Mary’s College, Shillong.

She will take us into the world of contemporary legends—those “believable yet unbelievable” stories that carry hidden histories and living belief systems.

Discover how these narratives become powerful oral sources, preserving moments and voices often left out of written records.

📍 OHAI Adda
🗓️ 25 Sept. 2025 | 6 PM
💻 Zoom link will be shared with registered participants

Legends as living history—come listen, question, and share.

25/01/2025

Kerala Museum- Janal Talks

As part of the 10th Annual Conference of the Oral History Association of India (OHAI), we are hosting the keynote address

https://www.youtube.com/live/5WsYeS-EF64?si=61-trWVDLVTwbZ6Y

📖 *Unearthing the Treasures of Oral History – Riches Drawn from Kutch*

👤 Keynote Speaker: *Dr. Mariam Dossal,* Former Professor, Department of History, University of Mumbai

About the Speaker
*Dr. Marian Dossal* is former professor of the Department of History, University of Mumbai. She is a historian of modern India who focuses on urban and maritime history and has authored and edited several books. Some of her major publications include Imperial Design and Indian Realities: The Planning of Bombay City, c. 1845-1875 (1991); Theatre of Conflict, City of Hope: Mumbai 1660 to Present Times (2010); an edited volume State Intervention and Popular Response: Western India in the Nineteenth Century (1998) and Flowers of the Sun the People and Land of Kutch c. 1740-2020 (2024).

Dr. Dossal has published extensively in national and international journals and is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Commonwealth Academic Staff Scholarship (1983-4); the Indo-US Visitorship (1993); the Rockefeller Foundation Award (1995); Membership at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton (2002-3). Her current research explores scientific and technological advances in nineteenth and twentieth-century western India.

The Kutch ports of Mandvi, Mundra, Jakhau, Lakhpat, Koteshwar, Bhadreshwar,Tuna and Luni engaged in fishing, coastal and long-distance oceanic trade for cent...

20/01/2025

🌊 Register now for the Janal Talk at Kerala Museum
on the link in bio 🔗
Or Call/Text Kerala Museum on 8129051881

As part of the 10th Annual Conference of the Oral History Association of India (As part of the 10th Annual Conference of the Oral History Association of India (OHAI), we are hosting the keynote address

📖 Vrishchikapokkam and a Rising Indian Ocean: The sea silently making its way into coastal lives
👤 Keynote Speaker: Dr. Sreeja K. G., Research Director, EQUINOCT Community Sourced Modelling Solutions

🗓 Date: 24 January, Friday
🕒 Time: 5 PM
📌 Kerala Museum, Pathadippalam, Kochi
🌐 Medium: English | Open to All!

The Janal Archive is made possible by the generous support of the Geojit Foundation.

20/01/2025

And our schedule for the 10th conference is our! Looking forward to listening to these incredible scholars from across India. See you all in Kochi this Weekend.

Here are the details:
10th Annual Conference of Oral History Association of India (OHAI) Coastal Histories: Stories of Resistance and Resilience
OHAI in collaboration with Kerala Museum, Kochi, Kerala Attendees Registration Open, To Register: https://forms.gle/2PCWDWS4HBFzYGiF9
📅 24, 25, 26 January 2025
📍 Kerala Museum, Pathadippalam, Kochi

This gathering seeks to document and preserve the cultural, environmental, and everyday life histories of India’s coastal communities, acknowledging their resilience while highlighting the challenges they face. The conference papers and presentations will focus on bringing to life the living memories of coastal and littoral zones, including rivers, estuaries, lagoons, lakes, and waterways.

❗Sub Themes • Fisheries transformation – practices, technologies and resistance • Coastal Ecologies and sustainability • Coastal Infrastructure and urbanisation • Climate change – crisis and response • Coastal Cultures (food, languages, music and performative traditions, rituals, folklore etc.) • Trade, livelihoods and economy • Migration and Coastal communities • Coastal Tourism

To Know More Call/Text to Kerala Museum on 081290 51881

12/10/2024

Hope you've sent in your abstracts!
If not, no worries — you still have a week! Don't forget to submit before 20th October!
Click here to send your abstract: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeEBhXxbwTJhaO2cXiuzTfjChanW7KUPMa3Q4-aOu1HRvtfig/viewform

📢 Call for papers 🌊

We are pleased to announce the Tenth Annual Conference of the Oral History Association of India

on the theme

"Coastal Histories: Stories of Resistance and Resilience",

organized in collaboration with the Kerala Museum.

🗓 24| 25| 26 January 2025
📍Kerala Museum, Kochi

For details regarding the Call for Papers, please visit: https://forms.gle/cRRumnjYWixYu2Gj8

28/09/2024

Happy to announce our next OHAI ADDA scheduled on 3rd October 2024 at 6 PM via Zoom

Building user interfaces and AI to make oral histories more accessible

The end-to-end process of oral history is a logistically burdensome and time-consuming process. Institutions often have to stitch together multiple applications for each separate part of the process from recording, to transcription, indexing, cataloguing, editing, preservation, and dissemination. By integrating these workflows into a single easy-to-use application and ethically leveraging key innovations around AI technologies such as speech-to-text (STT), Large Language Models (LLMs), named entity recognition (NER), and semantic search, it is possible to simplify and ease the process for any organisation to sustainably and affordably collect, preserve, and share its community stories.

Join this session to hear from TheirStory Founder & CEO, Zack Ellis, and Smithsonian Data Scientist, William Mattingly, about how they are teaming up to democratise the process of oral history.

For registration, click here: https://forms.gle/b53eFWHonLePSJra8

Registered participants will get the link for the Adda via email.

14/09/2024

📢 Call for papers 🌊

We are pleased to announce the Tenth Annual Conference of the Oral History Association of India

on the theme

"Coastal Histories: Stories of Resistance and Resilience",

organized in collaboration with the Kerala Museum.

🗓 24| 25| 26 January 2025
📍Kerala Museum, Kochi

For details regarding the Call for Papers, please visit: https://forms.gle/cRRumnjYWixYu2Gj8

13/08/2024

The editorial committee of VARTA - the official newsletter of the Oral History Association of India, invites submissions for the newsletter.
Contributions to the newsletters are invited from all OHAI members as well as non-members who are currently engaged with Oral History projects across the globe.

All submissions, in accordance with the categories mentioned here: https://ohai.info/call-for-submissions-ohai-varta-2025/, must be emailed to [email protected] with the subject line –
'Submission for OHAI Varta 2025', latest by September 30, 2024.

In case you have any queries, email us at: [email protected]

09/08/2024

We are planning an exciting workshop on "From Storytelling to Archive: Oral History, Oral Tradition and Indigenous Practices" in collaboration with Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, Rajiv Gandhi University, Doimukh, Arunachal Pradesh.
For more details, check here: https://ohai.info/events/from-storytelling-to-archive-oral-history-oral-tradition-and-indigenous-practices/
If you want to register, kindly apply here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfTL-av6TRId2dVRV1LcW-EcYxYZU8GLK5rapKn6FC6TYYBWQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

27/06/2024

Join us for our next adda with Dr. C. Yamini Krishna on her captivating film "Ilm ka Shehar/ City of Knowledge" on 3rd July 2024 at 7 pm via Zoom.

Discover the transformation of 19th-century ideas of knowledge to today's byte-sized information economy, through the varied narratives shared by the city of Hyderabad, Deccan. The film also featured the works of modernist intellectual Dr. Syed Mohiuddin Qadri Zor.

Dr. Krishna, Assistant Professor at FLAME University, holds a Ph.D. from The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, and is renowned for her research on film city urbanism in Hyderabad. She has received prestigious grants and fellowships, including the India Foundation for the Arts Research Grant and the Charles Wallace India Trust Fellowship.

Don't miss this opportunity to delve into the intersection of film, urbanism, and oral narratives with a distinguished scholar and filmmaker. Register here: https://forms.gle/JpqFKdHXrKinDy1z7

See you there!