Events

To coincide with Columbia’s Year of Water, the Oral History Archives at Columbia Libraries welcomes Megan Bucknum and Dr. Jennifer Kitson of Rowan University’s Department of Geography, Planning, and Sustainability. They will be sharing their research, Watershed Storytelling: Experiential Tools for Connecting People, Place, and Water​. Through a series of workshops and “sensory object prompts,” Kitson and Bucknum asked New Jersey’s citizens, “What New Jersey water source is most meaningful to you?” Working with public libraries, the project experiments with ways of soliciting stories that diverge from traditional oral history practices. For this project, the act of listening publicly to stories about water were as important as sharing stories or telling one’s story. Join us for a conversation about meaning- and place-making around water.