Can I get a Witness? Preserving Sheffield’s Past – 2011/12.

Article by Kate Law.

Witness: Preserving Sheffield’s past 2011/12 is an exciting new volunteer project being run by the department of History. Attempting to broaden the research of the department beyond the academy, Witness is a project intended to get undergraduate historians involved in recording and interpreting, Sheffield’s recent past. Running over the course of the next academic year, around six volunteers will conduct a small number of interviews with local Sheffield residents after receiving training from the Oral History Society (OHS). The OHS is a nationally recognised body which promotes ‘the collection, preservation and use of recorded memories of the past’. Alongside this training volunteers will also receive academic support from Dr Andrew Heath and Dr Charles West. It is intended that the project will create empirically rich student-led research materials which will be available to use in modules such as course assignments and dissertations. Volunteers will be expected to produce a summary of their findings, and this, together with the interviews themselves, will be made publicly available online at the end of the year. The project will also help volunteers further develop such skills as team-working and project management. Additionally, working on a project such as Witness always looks really great on CVs! Volunteers will be asked to commit to working between 1-2 hours a week during term time and as places are limited, applicants are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible. The closing date for applications is Monday 2nd May to Charles West (c.m.west@shef.ac.uk) and Andrew Heath(a.d.heath@shef.ac.uk) For more information please visit http://uspace.shef.ac.uk/community/witness 

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Oral History Society Website (http://www.oralhistory.org.uk/)

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