2013 Public History Partnerships Network Reception – Hearing Between the Lines by Alexander von Plato
2013 Public History Partnerships Network Reception – Hearing Between the Lines by Alexander von Plato
Professor Alexander von Plato, a prominent historian of Germany who specializes in the postwar and reunification periods, is the 2013 guest speaker at the History Partnerships Network Reception. The reception is an annual get-together for Ottawa-area historians who work in the public sphere and sponsor internships for the Carleton M.A. in Public History program.
Von Plato is visiting Canada as the 2012-2013 Diefenbaker fellow at the University of Winnipeg. In 1993 he founded the Institute for History and Biography at the Fernuniversität in Hagen, which undertook dozens of research projects that used oral history. In contrast to oral history scholars who emphasize the unreliability of interviewee memory, von Plato believes that, when properly done, interviews can be useful and reliable sources of information about the past.
Dr. von Plato has taught at the universities of Essen, Hagen, and Vienna. His most recent book, The Unification of Germany – A World Political Power Game; Bush, Kohn, Gorbachev and the Internal Moscow Protocols, has become an internationally popular commentary on Gorbachev’s talks with some of the world’s most powerful politicians from recent memory. He also recently authored a book entitled Hitler’s Slaves (2010) which is an important analysis of Second World War forced labor.
His lecture ‘Hearing Between the Lines’ will focus on his oral history methodology, which involves different stages that build on each other by deploying different techniques to elicit and validate information.
The reception will be held on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm in the River Building Atrium. RSVP to (613) 520-2828, or history@carleton.ca