Research | Queen’s University Canada

Speaking Through Time: The Power of Oral History

Speaking Through Time: The Power of Oral History

The Swamp Ward and Inner Harbour neighborhoods have a story to tell to those who will listen. Dr. Laura Murray has heard the tales and is centring her research on their storytellers.

Interviewee Name: 
Dr. Laura Murray
Topic: 
Speaking Through Time: The Power of Oral History
Podcast: 
Blind Date with Knowledge, Season 1, Episode 01
Interviewed by: 
Barry Kaplan
Air date on CFRC: 
January 31, 2018
Episode length: 
16:16
Academic areas: 

Dr. Laura Murray has published and taught extensively in Indigenous studies, US literature, copyright law, and cultural policy, and has been involved with community arts and political activism. She is also the Director of the Swamp Ward and Inner Harbour History Project, which is collecting stories through oral history and archival research to better understand the history of Kingston. In this episode, she discusses the benefits and challenges surrounding the use of oral history as an analytical tool, and how she is able to recruit community members for her project. Her project explores the history of the industrial Swamp Ward neighborhood and the diverse populations within it, and she describes how her research projects have come to fruition through community engagement and teaching.

Please visit the Department of English Language and Literature and SWIHHP Kingston for more information about Dr. Murray's research.

Speaking Through Time: The Power of Oral History

Season 1: Episode 01