On some emerging uses of oral history in the US: the case of hurricane Katrina

The article discusses how the diffusion of digital media has engendered new usages and appropriations of oral history, as well as the political implication thus entailed. By analyzing projects centered on the testimonies of victims of the devastation brought about by hurricane Katrina and developed in large American universities, the article elaborates two aspects of the production and diffusion of these testimonies: first, how contemporary appropriations of the oral history methodology lend themselves to the deliberate construction of future hegemonic memories; second, how the very proliferation of such endeavors promotes simultaneously a proliferation of victims and the fragmentation and dispersal of their testimonies.