Oral History Kosovo
Reviewed by: Majel Peters
Review started: March 14, 2023
Review last updated: March 14, 2023
Site link
Data and Sources
- Video-based interviews of individuals who personally experienced the Kosovo war including activists, journalists, doctors and scientists
- First person written accounts (“stories”) of contemporary and historic experiences
- Videos (ex. Art tutorials, animated shorts)
- Original art
Partners & Donors:
- National Endowment for Democracy
- European Union
- UN Development Program
- Austrian Development Cooperation
- French Embassy, Kosovo
- German-French Culture Fund
- Rockefeller Brothers Fund
- German Embassy
- German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)
- Foundation for Arts Initiatives
- Forum ZDF
- Municipality of Prishtina
- Seed funding provided by The New School
Processes
- Editing of audio and video content
- Translation and transcription of interviews
- Sorting of videos under thematic headings
- Mapping of stories
- Curation of exhibits
- Extracting audio from videos for anonymous podcast expression
- Modified UX based on country of origin
Presentation
- Thematic collection of oral history via
- Videos
- Podcasts
- Transcriptions
- Two Walking Tour apps featuring video, audio and text (Pristina and Janjevo)
- Online Art Exhibits
- Print publications (ex. exhibition text, coloring book,)
- YouTube Archive
- Active Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
Digital Tools Used
- Google maps
- WPML Multilingual
- JavaScript
- Fancybox
- Magnificent Popup
- Isotope
- Swiper
- Modernizr
- Wordpress
Languages
- Albanian, Serbian, Turkish, and English
Review
Emerging from a 2012 collaboration between Kosova Women’s Network (Pristina) and The New School for Public Engagement (New York), Oral History Kosovo was originally focused on the stories of Albanian women and their experiences in times of war and peace. In 2015, Oral History became fully independent and broadened their research themes to include recording life stories that intersect with the broader history of Kosovo and the world’s events. The heart of the project are the video and audio oral histories reflecting both the original focus on women’s stories and Kosovo history with special attention on the war of the 90s. In addition to the video and audio, interpretive illustrations informed by the oral histories are available, displayed in online and physical exhibits.
Evidence that the project has evolved into a living memory project can be seen in the first person “stories” capturing contemporary accounts, including COVID-19 lived experience, as well as historic accounts. An open call for women artists from Central and Eastern Europe to participate in an online collection attests to a continued commitment to the project's foundation in elevating women’s voices.
Although the project creators do not offer individual positionality statements, the project on a whole displays evidence of “feminist care” in their process from inception through continued production. The modern and expressive visual design and usability of the site suggests a vibrant contemporary conversation devised for cross-generational engagement. At the same time, transparency about project creators’ ranging competency levels, availability of content in the languages of their participants, awareness of their own mark on the expression of the oral histories (including a public discussion of the dynamic between interviewer, interviewee and presence of recording devices) are all evidence of the sensitivity they bring to the work. Their discussion of the value and cultural relevance of oral history to Kosovo further suggests the mode of research and expression is a fitting form to their subject matter, allowing for their interviewees to share their “contradictions, uncertainties and mistakes that reveal their anxieties, fears, aspirations and dreams.“