The Newton Creek Project:
Oral History and Environmental Injustice
Thursday 06 December, 2012
6 - 8pm, $0
Columbia Law School, Greene Hall
435 West 116 Street, Room 701
Suzanne Snider will discuss the use of community-based oral history to politicize victims of environmental injustice and to establish a collaborative public health report and map, based on the testimony of long-term residents in three adjacent New York City neighborhoods. The Newtown Creek Community Health and Harms Narrative Project engaged oral historians, social scientists, information designers, community activists, and residents (These categories were not mutually exclusive). This project was initiated by Rachael Weiss and Michael Heimbinder; Snider participated in this project as an oral history consultant and community trainer. What connected all participants was Newtown Creek, an estuary that separates Brooklyn and Queens. Over the last 100 years, Exxon Mobil has dumped or leaked between 17 and 30 million gallons of oil into the creek. A disproportionate number of area residents suffer from rare forms of cancer.
There will also be a presentation from faculty and alumni about the Oral History Master of Arts (OHMA), an interdisciplinary program in the field of oral history that focuses on interviewing methodologies and interpretive methods.
Suzanne Snider is a writer and oral historian. She has worked as an interviewer for Columbia University’s Center for Oral History, the New York Academy of Medicine, HBO Productions, the Newtown Creek Community Health and Harms Narrative Project, and the Prison Public Memory Project, among others. She teaches at the New School University and is the founder/director of Oral History Summer School.
There will also be a presentation from faculty and alumni about the Oral History Master of Arts (OHMA), an interdisciplinary program in the field of oral history that focuses on interviewing methodologies and interpretive methods.
Suzanne Snider is a writer and oral historian. She has worked as an interviewer for Columbia University’s Center for Oral History, the New York Academy of Medicine, HBO Productions, the Newtown Creek Community Health and Harms Narrative Project, and the Prison Public Memory Project, among others. She teaches at the New School University and is the founder/director of Oral History Summer School.