Kathryn Boschmann, a graduate student in history at Carleton, was one of 25 recipients of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Storyteller Award.
The award challenges students to demonstrate how the social sciences and humanities affects lives through a video, a podcast, or a written submission. The top 25 also receive $3,000 prize.
Boschmann said she has always been a storyteller.
“It’s part of what has always appealed to me about history,” she said. “What I love about oral history is the chance to chat with people about their stories and listen to different opinions on things and how they understand themselves and their past.”
Boschmann’s submission centred around her academic research, which looks at the oral history of Irish Canadians living in Winnipeg.
“What I’m looking at is the importance of embodied experiences in their memories and how they relate to the past,” she said. “One thing I am looking at is performance.
“[Playing] music is really important in their process of migration, but when you look at it, it also shows how there are fractures within the group,” she said.
Boschmann said she chose Winnipeg to conduct research because she had a connection to it. So far, she said she has conducted 10 interviews.
“It’s not a huge community but it’s sizeable . . . The census is something like 14 per cent, which is a good chunk, although people may check off more than one box on the census,” she said. “I chose Winnipeg because I am from Manitoba and because I lived there for five years, so it is kind of like home for me.”
A friend introduced her to the contest and it took her about two weeks to complete the podcast. She said she was not expecting to rank so high.
“It’s really exciting and really humbling because I know it’s a pretty competitive—it’s very exciting to be a part of it,” Boschmann said. “[I found] it hard to fit something you’ve been thinking about for a few years into three minutes . . . I felt like podcasts were a bit of risk but because I was doing interviews it was suited what I was doing so much better.”
The next step for Boschmann is to present live at The Storytellers Showcase, a part of the 2015 Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities.
Starting April 14, the SSHRC will also feature five of its finalists per week on its website and social media.
