CFP - "The Talk about Town: Urban Lives and Oral Sources in 20th Century Australia" (State Library of Vic and Melb Museum, Vic)

Conference Announcement - CALL FOR PAPERS

The Talk about Town: Urban Lives and Oral Sources in 20th Century Australia

27-28 August 2009, at the State Library of Victoria and Melbourne Museum

Sponsored by the State Library of Victoria, the Monash University Institute for Public History, Museum Victoria, the University of Melbourne’s School of Historical Studies and Macquarie University’s Department of Modern History.

"The Talk about Town: Urban Lives and Oral Sources in Twentieth Century Australia" invites researchers and professionals working on life in Australian cities since 1900 to come together and reflect on their projects. It hopes to encourage participants to think about the significance of the urban context, whether or not it is the primary focus of their research. In particular, researchers working with personal sources in fields such as oral history, life history and immigration, are encouraged to look at the way that urban settings have shaped the stories they have been told.

Postgraduate students and professionals working with history are particularly encouraged to participate.

"The Talk about Town" is delighted to welcome distinguished oral and urban historian Alessandro Portelli, Professor of American literature at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, as keynote speaker. Professor Portelli is the author of a number of influential studies in oral history and popular memory including The Order Has Already Been Carried Out: History, Memory and Meaning of a Nazi Massacre in Rome (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and The Death of Luigi Trastulli: Form and Meaning in Oral History (State University of New York Press, 1991). From 2002 to 2008, he served as advisor to the mayor of Rome for the preservation and promotion of the city’s historical memory, and is currently co-manager of Rome's House of History and Memory.

"The Talk about Town" offers a rich and stimulating conference program, to be hosted by the State Library of Victoria and Museum Victoria, on 27-28 August 2009. Day one of the conference will feature a series of parallel sessions and a keynote address by Professor Portelli. Day two of the conference will feature further parallel sessions, a number of workshops led by experts in urban and oral history, and additional events including walking tours of inner Melbourne and a guided tour of ‘The Melbourne Story’ at Melbourne Museum.

Following the conference, participants are encouraged to submit articles based on their conference presentations for consideration for publication in a special issue of a refereed journal.

Persons wishing to present papers at the conference should send 200 word abstracts (for a 20 minute presentation), to Kerrie Alexander at kerrie.alexander @ arts.monash.edu.au on or before 31 December 2008.

For inquiries about the conference, or proposals for panels, please contact the organising committee via talkabouttown @ gmail.com.

>> Visit the "Talk about Town" conference website.