Saturday 7 May 2011

Thanks and photographs

This year's event was a great success, and we would like to take this opportunity to thank the guests, the speakers and the team of volunteers for making this event what it was. In the next few months, you will begin to see photographs, articles, reports and videos of the event. Additionally, we would be glad to host any photographs that you have from the event (please send them to the usual address: personalhistories2009@googlemail.com).

For the meantime, however, a number of excellent photographs have been uploaded to our Facebook page (search for "Personal Histories Project"). For those without an account, we will hopefully put these photographs on another page in the next few days.

If you have any feedback or comments about this event (or others), as well as suggestions, please send them to the above e-mail address and we will endeavour to get back to you as soon as possible.

The Personal Histories Team

Friday 1 April 2011

Update and donations

Dear all,

With the 28th April event drawing close, preparations have been getting into full swing. Each year, the project creates new opportunites for expansion and publicity. Unfortunately, this comes at a cost, and while we try to keep our running costs as low as possible, they are, at the same time, unavoidable. In mind of this, we are in the process of setting up a dedicated account where members of the public can, if they so choose, contribute to the running costs of the project (details forthcoming). It would be our intention to use these funds not only to maintain the work that we currently do, but to expand on it, to deliver new media and serives, and to enrol new specialisms that will, we hope, contribute positively in the coming years.

Once established, we will become more accountable to our patrons, and you can hope to see reports and outlines of our work to show that your money is contributing to the cause.

Our thanks and gratitude, in advance
The Personal Histories team

Friday 18 February 2011

CAM FM and Personal Histories partnership

The Cambridge student radio station, CAM FM, has decided to partner with the Personal-Histories Project, becoming our public voice, broadcasting segments of our retrospective discussions every Sunday.

This Sunday, at 4pm, Vicki Perrin and 'The Cambridge Arts Show' on CAM FM (97.2) will broadcast audio clips from our 2007 film.

<http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1080389>

An oral history of the beginnings of gendered analyses in archaeology with William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, Henrietta Moore, Professor Meg Conkey from University of
California at Berkeley, Professor Ruth Tringham also from Berkeley and Professor Alison Wylie from the University of Washington recounting their memories and young experiences as they pioneered early symbolic, gendered and structural approaches during the 1970s.

Enjoy,
The Personal Histories team

Friday 11 February 2011

CAM FM interview

You can listen to an interview with Pamela and Sam on CAM 97.2 FM radio through the following link (click on 6th February on the calendar and then 'the Cambridge arts show').

http://www.camfm.co.uk/index.php?option=com_radioshows&view=daily&Itemid=12#cal

Enjoy,
Owen, Personal Histories

Tuesday 1 February 2011

Personal histories: the story so far

Dear all,

As the next personal histories event is yet months away, Pamela has kindly written a series of brief summaries, and collected various resources, for past personal histories events. If you are interested in learning any more about these events, or of having access to original materials (such as videos), please send an e-mail to our regular address.

A general description of the Project is available on
http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/personal-histories/

Five Personal Histories films are now uploaded to the University's
Streaming Media Service (SMS) and two others will soon be available.

2006

An oral history of the New Archaeology of the 1960s:http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1080569.

Professor Colin Renfrew from the University of Cambridge, Professor Mike
Schiffer from the University of Arizona and Professor Ezra Zubrow of the
State University of New York remember their personal and historical
involvement with the development of the New Archaeology during the 1950s
and 1960s. Also speaking are Disney Professor Graeme Barker and Professor
Paul Mellars from Cambridge, Professors Robin Dennell and Marek Zvelebil
from the University of Sheffield and Professor Rob Foley from the
Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies. The retrospective,
oral-historical discussion was held at the University of Cambridge,
Cambridge, UK, on the 23rd October 2006.

2007

An oral history of the beginnings of gendered analyses in science:http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1080389

Four of most eminent scholars in archaeology, William Wyse Professor of
Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge, Henrietta Moore,
Professor Meg Conkey from University of California at Berkeley, Professor
Ruth Tringham also from Berkeley and Professor Alison Wylie from the
University of Washington recount and analyse their memories and young
experiences as they pioneered early 'post-processual' symbolic, gendered
and structural approaches to archaeological analyses during the 1970s. The
discussion was held at the University of Cambridge on the 22rd October
2007.

2008

Personal Histories of the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG):http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/1080397.

An oral history of TAG through 31 years is presented by the two original
founders of TAG, Professor Colin Renfrew, Cambridge, and Professor Andrew
Fleming, University of Wales, and Professor Richard Bradley from the
University of Reading, Professor Clive Gamble, Royal Holloway, University
of London, Professor Timothy Darvill from Bournemouth University, Duncan
Brown from the Southampton City Council and Professor Tim Champion from the
University of Southampton recounting their memories. The session was filmed
at the Southampton Theoretical Archaeology Group on the 16th December 2008.

2008

Oral-histories and the development of human evolutionary research:http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/754446.

Professor Meave Leakey from the famous Leakey family and Head the Koobi
Fora Research Project, Professor Chris Stringer from the Natural History
Museum, Professor Leslie Aiello, President of the Wenner-Gren Foundation,
Professor David Pilbeam from Harvard University and Professor Adam Kuper of
Brunel University share their memories of their own research into the
origins of our species.

A montage comprised of clips from the 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 Personal
Histories Panels created by Emily Walker is available:
http://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/756276.

2009

Oral historical accounts of the history of the Institute of Archaeology,
UCL

A film of the Personal Histories which Stephen Shennan, Director of the
Institute of Archaeology at University College London, and I organised held
at the Institute in London on 11th November 2009, will soon be uploaded.

The panellists included the 96-year-olds, Beatrice de Cardi and Rachel
Maxwell-Hyslop, who worked with Tessa and Mortimer Wheeler as they founded
the Institute during the 1930s. The late Peter Gathercole and the late John
Alexander, graduate students during the early 1950s also spoke. Ian Hodder,
one of the Institute's first undergraduates in the late 1960s, and three
Directors, John Evans, David Harris and Stephen Shennan contributed their
memories. The resulting film will be used during orientation for new
students and as a reference source on the Institute's web site.

2009

An Oral History of Media and Archaeology
On 12th October 2009, at the University of Cambridge,
Sir David Attenborough spoke before a huge crowd about his experiences as a
young assistant producer of the iconic and immensely popular BBC television
quiz programme, `Animal, vegetable or mineral?', during the early 1950s. As
he stated in an earlier letter to the Personal histories team, `I have many
vivid memories of Glyn Daniel, Mortimer Wheeler and others as well as
having something to do with Buried Treasure, Chronicle and the Silbury Hill
excavation.'

`What a starry collection of diggers, if the roof had fallen, in there
wouldn't have been a site director left in the country,' wrote Maev
Kennedy, archaeology correspondent for {The Guardian}, when
commenting on the illustrious audience who had gathered to hear Sir David's
memories.

Read about this event, as reported in `Archaeology becomes a sensation' (British Archaeology, Jan-Feb 2010). http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/personal-histories/ba-110-january-february-2010-my-archaeology.pdf

The transcription is available from
http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/repository/personal-histories-2009-transcript.pdf

In addition to all of the above, a new website with photos, video and other materials from last years' event (featuring David Attenborough) should 'go live' in the next couple of weeks.

Best wishes,
The Personal Histories team

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Change of date: 28th April

Dear all,

Due to various scheduling issues, the event date has been moved from the 29th to the 28th April. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause. Otherwise, the details for the event are unchanged, and your ticket allocations of course remain valid. However, we are unable at the moment to confirm the exact timing of events on the day. As soon as we have confirmed this, details will be posted here.

Again, to clarify, the event has moved to the 28th April.

If you have any questions regarding this or other issues, please do not hesitate to contact us at our e-mail address: personalhistories2009@googlemail.com

Best wishes,
The Personal Histories Team

Saturday 6 November 2010

Media from Personal Histories 2009

Since 2009, we have been working on a number of media to present that years' successful panel. These include video montages, transcripts and photographs. The event also received coverage in the magazine British Archaeology.

Find more information, links and media at: http://www.arch.cam.ac.uk/personal-histories/animal-vegetable-mineral.html

A video montage of previous events can also be found here: http://www.sms.cam.ac.uk/media/756276

Enjoy,
The Personal Histories Team