McHugh Keneally Prize for Oral History, 2020
The prominent author, Thomas Keneally has endowed a $5,000 prize, which will be awarded in an annual amount of $500, to honour the significance of oral history as a valuable research practice and tool of social inclusion.
As oral history is multi-disciplinary the prize will be open to all ASSH undergraduates.
The prize will be determined by a panel that will usually include:
- A senior delegate from the Oral History Association of Australia;
- A representative from ASSH (usually Dr Siobhan McHugh);
- Another academic representative of ASSH.
Criteria
The prize will be awarded to an enrolled ASSH undergraduate who demonstrates significant use of primary sources derived from oral history interviews within an assessment for that subject, in 2020.
The prize will be awarded for an assessment task that best uses oral history to promote social inclusion and/or fill a gap in knowledge. The oral history may be skilfully incorporated into a narrative journalism piece, creative work or digital project, or drawn on for an academic essay. The assessment task must have achieved a mark of 75% or more and be submitted in its original format.
The piece will need to have the subject coordinator's endorsement and can be submitted at the end of semester one or two.
Oral history definition
An oral history interview is defined here as an in-depth recorded interview canvassing a person’s lived experience and reflections on their past, conducted in a spirit of collaboration, and where possible, be preserved for future researchers. A well conducted oral history interview fills a gap in knowledge and often helps interviewees to make sense of their lives, through the detailed yet distilled telling.
Nominations
Please submit your nominations via the McHugh Keneally Oral History Prize webform.
2019 winning project
Exploring the Grey Zone: Protecting the critically endangered grey nurse shark.
Student winners: Coen Ayres, Kaia Cox, Kara Tuck, Lucile Goarin, Titilua Ikenasio (JRNL302 project)
Judges citation:
Exploring the Grey Zone takes us on a journey into the world of the grey nurse shark at Bushranger's Bay, just south of Shoalhaven on the New South Wales south coast. This multimedia project records diverse perspectives with those who interact with the shark: conservationists, scientists, divers, local fishermen and others. It provides a fascinating insight into this small but passionate community and presents a laudable range of views. Aesthetically, it is beautifully wrought, combining the intimacy of the human voice with extraordinary images of underwater scenes, crafted as a scrolling process that takes the viewer on a simulated deep dive into the topic.