Columbia University Oral History Masters Program

05/11/2026

We invite anyone doing local history projects in the New York City area to join us for drinks and snacks on May 30, 2026 from 6-8 PM at Everything Goes Book Cafe, 208 Bay St., Staten Island. YES, we are finally completing our tour of the five boroughs. It's walkable from the ferry.

Come meet people from other neighborhoods doing similar work, share strategies, and chat! Feel free to bring literature to share. Drinks and snacks provided.

Co-hosted by the Oral History Association, Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region (OHMAR), the Queens Memory Project, City Lore and Columbia's Oral History MA Program.

RSVP here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf6wEWq11X8ILLBDFcP0rDFwv997IU1t6639MSjKS9RI4QyMg/viewform

04/22/2026

OHMA Presents: Presence
April 29 – May 9 | NYC

In a moment that feels chaotic, disconnected, and increasingly digital, it is notable that OHMA students in our Curating Oral Histories class this year all chose to create experiences that happen in person and invite embodied connection and slow reflection. Presence.

From oral histories of embodied healing paired with somatic workshops, to conversations over crafts and food, to a late-night deli-speakeasy of artists’ night jobs, to visual art on trauma therapies, and explorations of internationalism and coming of age in Nigeria—these projects unfold across New York City.

We invite you to be present with us.

🔗 https://ohmaexhibits.org/hub/ohma-presents-presence

04/01/2026

Big news: we’ve added $25,000 in new financial aid for applicants to our May 1 deadline. If you thought you missed your chance to be considered for funding, it’s not too late to apply.

Stories have the power to transform—if only they’re listened to. Oral historians around the world are working to preserve and amplify critical narratives of our time.

The Oral History Master of Arts (OHMA) is the first and only program of its kind in the United States: a one-year interdisciplinary degree training students to record and amplify first-person stories using a range of technological, creative, and analytical tools.

Apply by May 1. https://oralhistory.columbia.edu/admissions

03/19/2026

Celebrate Women’s History Month with us at Weeksville Heritage Center ✨

Join us for a community event and interactive day of celebration honoring the legacy of Zora Neale Hurston, the groundbreaking writer of Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as a cultural anthropologist, folklorist, playwright, and choreographer.

Led by Tanya Birl-Torres of The Zora Project, in collaboration with Anya Andrews, this family-friendly event brings Hurston’s legacy to life through storytelling, movement, and community connection. We will gather, break bread, listen to Hurston’s collected folktales, learn how they work, and craft our own modern-day stories—what she called the “boiled down juice of human living.”

We’ll also experience reimagined choreography of the Buzzard Lope and Crow Dance, adapted from Hurston’s lost works and Their Eyes Were Watching God, exploring how she studied and participated in ritualized dance to preserve Black cultural traditions.

This event is free for the entire family—no experience necessary, just a curiosity and willingness to connect 💛

🔗 Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gathering-the-folk-a-celebration-of-zora-neale-hurston-tickets-1976618668647?aff=oddtdtcreator

03/17/2026

Apply to the Oral History Master of Arts at Columbia University by May 1st!

OHMA is the first and only program of its kind in the United States: a one-year interdisciplinary degree training students to record and amplify first-person stories using a range of technological, creative, and analytical tools. We teach oral history as a practice of co-creating dialogic, critical conversations about the past, in the present, which are oriented towards the future.

Our graduates work in museums, historical societies, advocacy organizations, media, the arts, education, human rights and development. As independent contractors, they manage oral history projects, teach interview workshops, and offer project consultations to leading institutions and community organizations. They earn doctorates in fields like anthropology, sociology, history, journalism, and American studies or professional degrees in law, education, or social work.

Run by Columbia Oral History (COH), one of the preeminent oral history programs in the world, and housed within Incite, a lively hub for interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences, OHMA connects students with the intellectual resources of a major research university and with the intimate society of a small cohort of talented students.

https://oralhistory.columbia.edu/admissions

02/11/2026

Please join us for the 2025 Jeffrey H. Brodsky Oral History Award Lecture featuring OHMA alum and award recipient Maya Gayer on Thursday, February 19, 2026 from 10:00 am to 11:30 am.

Gayer will present her Brodsky Award–winning thesis, In Defense of Democracy: An Oral History Archive of the Israeli Democracy Protest Movement, which examines the unprecedented protest movement that emerged in Israel and globally in 2023 in response to proposed judicial reforms that threatened democratic checks and balances.

Drawing on interviews conducted during her Fulbright year at Columbia with over twenty movement leaders and organizers, Gayer will situate the protest movement within broader global trends of democratic backsliding, discuss recurring patterns of civic resistance, and reflect on the ethical and methodological challenges of producing oral history during moments of political crisis.

The event will feature a presentation followed by an audience Q&A.

This event is co-sponsored by Columbia’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.

Using oral history to learn about how to fight democratic backsliding.

01/26/2026

Can you envision yourself in our 19th cohort?

The Columbia University Oral History Masters Program community is over 200 oral historians strong and growing! Click the link in our bio to register for our open house and learn more about our application process!

01/12/2026

Feyisayo Aluko is a current OHMA student and runs an African fiction publishing house that focuses on identity, imagination, and storytelling.

They’ve just put together their first anthology, Few Are Roaming, written by three women living and working in Nigeria. In Nigeria, the saying “Many are mad, but few are roaming” captures the cultural zeitgeist of 2024, a year in which the absurdities of everyday life pushed Nigerian citizens to the very edge of their sanity. Drawing from this reality, the inaugural residents of Kokonut Head Media wrote directly into the chaos, producing a bold collection of short stories aptly titled Few Are Roaming. Now, they’re looking to print and distribute 1,000 copies of this book in 2026 and need support.

So far, the project is 22% funded and has been highlighted by the Kickstarter team directly. All this to say, if you love literature and the arts, please consider donating, sharing, and checking out the work. It would mean so much, and if you do, supporters will receive a free copy of the book.

click the link to learn more:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kokonutheadmedia/few-are-roaming-an-anthology/description

11/14/2025

Head to "Alexandrian Archives" to hear OHMA alum Nairy AbdElShafy's four-episode Arabic language podcast miniseries, all four episodes are in Arabic. Based in oral history methods, the interview episodes explore alternative forms of documenting and archiving the city of Alexandria, using audio, music, sketching, and writing.

Click the link below to listen https://kometkashakeel.com/2025/05/28/alex-archives/

11/13/2025

Incite’s Oral History MA Program is hiring a new co-director

The Oral History Master of Arts Program (OHMA) at Columbia University invites applications for a full-time appointment as a Lecturer in Discipline, to serve as Co-Director for the Oral History Master of Arts Program. This is a full-time appointment based in Incite to begin July 1, 2026.

The Co-Director will work alongside Amy Starecheski, current Director of the program, pursuing their own research and contributing to the research of the Center for Oral History Research, while also supporting OHMA. Teaching duties will include teaching two core courses per semester, such as oral history fieldwork and archiving, theoretical approaches to oral history, histories of oral history, and curating oral histories, advising MA thesis projects, and providing academic and professional advising for students and alumni.

Administrative responsibilities for the position will include co-directing recruitment and admissions processes; supervising internship placements; supervising communications and administrative support staff; managing registration and graduation processes; and providing public programming, as well as training and advising on oral history to members of the Columbia community and the public.

Application review will begin Dec 1 and continue until the position is filled.

Click the link to learn more and apply!
https://apply.interfolio.com/177569

11/10/2025

OHMA Alum Nicki Pombier contributed a chapter to Cripping the Archive: Disability, History, and Power.

To learn more, click https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088797 or visit press.uillinois.edu/Books