V rámci výuky magisterského studijního programu Orální historie – soudobé dějiny na Fakultě humanitních studií Univerzity Karlovy vystoupil 12. a 14. října světoznámý orální historik David King Dunaway. Fotogalerii naleznete zde, záznam druhé přednášky pak zde.
1. přednáška: Biography, Route 66 and Radio: Oral History According to David King Dunaway, 12. října 2025 od 14:30 hodin v místnosti 1.12
Abstract: Through a working historian and biographer’s eyes, David Dunaway will discuss methods for research, recording interviews (including what equipment to use), and using oral history to improve society. Discussing his books and productions on Pete Seeger, singer-activist, and Route 66, the world’s most famous road, he will play excerpts from his documentaries and discuss how to find success in presenting oral history findings across platforms like podcasting, academic journals, broadcasting, and by publishing books.
Telling stories of his beginnings in oral history and biography, starting as a graduate student, one of America’s senior oral historians will share practical tips and reflections. He will also preview his upcoming international radio series on Route 66, offering up hidden voices which mainstream historians rarely found, and take questions and comments on how to get started in these fields.
Dunaway is the author and editor of a dozen books on oral history and producer of prize-wining international documentaries and a professor at the University of New Mexico and the University of Sao Paulo.
2. přednáška: Broadcasting (Oral) History, 14. října 2025 od 14:30 v místnosti 1.17
Abstract: Broadcasting and oral history seem, at first glance, made for one another. Producers search constantly for thoughtful, provocative interviews; oral historians seek an audience beyond library stacks, a public for their work. Documentarians, academic and public historians, community organizers, local history groups, educators, interested citizens—all could benefit from a marriage between history and broadcasting, in my case, radio. So we will hear excerpts of documentaries on musician-activist Pete Seeger and tales of Route 66, the most famous road in the world.
History archives can provide, when broadcast, an open window custom built for radio, podcasting, television and netcasting. They are rich with the color and pacing of real speech. If well recorded and videoed, many interviews may be of gem quality, though considerable mining and polishing may be required before the jewels are extracted. They carry greater depth than for-broadcast interviews; they are usually transcribed (and transcription makes for easy editing and assembling of programs); and they involve not certified experts but us regular folks, the narrators and the listeners, in the making and transmission of history.
Regardless of format, key issues which crop up in broadcasting biography are reductionism, cultural representation/appropriation, and the translation of literary and historical scholarship into mass-media discourse. Reductionism is the fallacy of thinning out complex arguments and supporting data into a single strand of authoritative information. This problem also confronts those working in print, but since the compression of subject and time is the essence of broadcasting, it is more of a problem for broadcasters. It’s hard enough to sift through twenty volumes on a subject and write fifty pages for a chapter or scholarly journal. Doing the same research to write four pages of script, devoid of footnotes and commentaries on sources, is not only harder, it also raises serious questions of how far the compression of knowledge can occur without compromising its character.
Problems of cultural representation and appropriation also haunt the broadcaster. Since producers often enter worlds far separate from the ones into which they were born, , they are forced to ask if they are representing or appropriating other cultures in their work. If the archives hold all this great material, why, then aren’t producers courting historical archives? Before any wedding between the two fields can take place, producers of media and history must understand each other far better than they do today.