ORAL HISTORY SUMMER INSTITUTE

For the classroom and community

REGISTER NOW

Friday and Saturday, August 15 & 16, 2025

9:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Arbutus Folk School

705 4th Ave E, Olympia, WA 98501

Learn to ethically document and share community voices. Perfect for educators, librarians, arts and culture professionals, and others interested in project-based community oral history research.

Participants will develop skills in project development, archival research methods, oral history interviewing, audio recording, and ethical best practices for documenting community and family histories.

6 educator clock hours provided

Sliding Scale Cost

Full Rate $180 / Supporting Rate $225 / Needing Support Rate $135*

*Educators may be eligible for funding for this offering through a WEA Community Outreach Grant. Learn more here.

Key Instructor

Elaine Vradenburgh (she/her) is an oral historian, multimedia storyteller, and educator and founder, Co-Director, and “Memory Activist” at Window Seat. Before founding Window Seat in 2016, she carried out her vocation through a variety of roles — as a development director at nonprofit organizations in the South Sound; as a community-based learning coordinator at high schools in Albuquerque, NM and Portland, OR; and as a freelance videographer and editor. Elaine has also served as an adjunct faculty member in The Evergreen State College's MPA and Evening and Weekend Studies programs since 2017. She holds a BA in Cultural and Community Studies from The Evergreen State College (1998) and a MA in Interdisciplinary Studies: Folklore, Anthropology, and Journalism from the University of Oregon (2008). Elaine’s roots and extended family are in New England, and she has called Olympia home since 2008.