Oral history, technological change and the AI revolution: Doug Boyd in conversation with Al Thomson

Date: Tuesday 8 December 2026

Time: 5:30-6.30 pm (Eastern Summer Time)

Location: Hybrid event - in person at the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, 239 A'Beckett St, Melbourne, 3000 and online on Zoom.

As the final OHV ‘Talking about Listening’ event for 2026, and as an end of year celebration for Victorian oral historians, Oral History Victoria and the Royal Historical Society of Victoria bring you this in person and online conversation between two of the world’s leading oral historians. Together they will explore recent technological, social and ethical developments in oral history, consider the opportunities and challenges posed by Artificial Intelligence, and respond to your excitements and concerns.

Light refreshments will be served.

Professor Doug Boyd is the Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries and is a recent president of the US Oral History Association. Boyd envisioned, designed and implemented the open source and free OHMS system, which synchronizes text with audio and video online.  In 2019 Boyd received a Fulbright Scholars Research Grant to collaborate with the National Library of Australia on innovative access to online oral history. He is the author of Oral History: A Very Short Introduction  published by Oxford University Press in 2025, and co-editor of Oral History and the Digital Humanities: Voice, Access, and Engagement (2014). Find out more about Doug at: https://dougboyd.org/.

Alistair (Al) Thomson is Emeritus Professor of History at Monash University in Australia and was previously Professor of Oral History at the University of Sussex in England. He has served as President of Oral History Australia and of the International Oral History Association and has published thirteen oral history books about war, migration, family life and oral history theory and method, including Fathering: An Australian History (2025) and The Bloomsbury Oral History Handbook (2026).