Staff


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David Amel Olson is the Oral History Archivist for the Oral History Archives at Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Before working at Columbia, David worked with oral history collections documenting the history of the radical left and labor movements at New York University's Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. David holds an MA from NYU in Archives and Public History and an MLIS from Long Island University's Palmer School. His introduction to archives was working at the Social Welfare History Archives, while pursing his BA in history from the University of Minnesota. David has also previously worked in state government and the legal sector.

 

Chelsea Reil is a Project Archivist for the Oral History Archives at Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library. She is currently working on the Obama Presidency Oral History Project will process the Jeffrey H. Brodsky Oral History Collection. Before working at Columbia, she was Registrar at the New York Transit Museum, preserving the history of New York's public transit systems. She has also worked in the archives at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Democracy Now!, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños) at Hunter College, and Queens College. Chelsea holds an MLIS with a concentration in Archives from Queens College and a BA in Journalism and Spanish from Northeastern University.

 

Dr. Kimberly Springer is Curator for Oral History for the Oral History Archives at Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library. She holds a master’s of information science, specializing in archives, preservation and social computing from the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor. She obtained her doctorate from the Women’s Studies Program at Emory University in Atlanta.  

 


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As one of the world’s leading centers for the practice and teaching of oral history, the Columbia University Center for Oral History Research (CCOHR) seeks to record unique life histories, document the central historical events and memories of our times, provide public programming, and teach and do research across the disciplines. CCOHR is housed at the Interdisciplinary Center for Innovative Theory and Empirics (INCITE). Oral historian Mary Marshall Clark directs CCOHR. 

INCITE/CCOHR and the Obama Foundation have partnered to produce the official oral history of the Barack Obama Presidency.

 

Oral History Master's class

 

Columbia University’s Oral History Master of Arts Program is the first program of its kind in the United States: a one-year interdisciplinary MA degree training students in oral history method and theory. Oral historian and educator Amy Starcheski directs the master's program.