The Oral History Australia (OHA) journal is to be renamed Studies in Oral History from the next issue due later this year.
Changing the title was first proposed and discussed at the 2019 OHA Biennial Conference in a session seeking member input in the future direction of the journal.
The journal editors Carla Pascoe Leahy and Skye Krichauff formally recommended the title change to the OHA national committee, which approved it at a recent meeting.
‘The suggestion was to bring our journal in line with other oral history journals around the world which don’t refer to their place of origin,’ the editors said.
‘The idea was that changing our name from the Oral History Australia Journal to Studies in Oral History makes it clear that the journal is not only open to topics dealing with Australian oral history or written by Australian oral historians, but is interested in and engaged with oral history around the world.’
The new title is the latest in a number of significant changes to the OHA’s flagship publication. Other changes include:
- making the journal open access
- expanding the Editorial Board to include prominent overseas oral historians.
Oral History Australia and its predecessor, the Oral History Association of Australia, began publishing the journal for the benefit of its members from the inception of the organisation in 1979.
The publication was previously known as the Oral History Association of Australia Journal and since 2014 has been the Oral History Australia Journal (ISSN: 0158 7366).
OHA ceased printing copies of the journal with the 2016 issue and since 2017 issues have been published in electronic format only.