Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador Oral History and Documentation Labs
The Surviving Memory in Postwar El Salvador team utilizes two Oral History and Documentation Labs, one at the Faculty of Information and Media Studies (FIMS) at Western University (Canada) and one in our field office in San José Las Flores, Chalatenango (El Salvador). The labs are funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF), the Ontario Research Fund (ORF), FIMS, and Research Western. The labs provide critical infrastructure for the documentation of civil war massacre sites and survivor testimonies; video editing; transcription and translation; high-resolution GPS; podcasting; workshops and events; community capacity building and training; scanning and digitization; and multimedia projects. Our El Salvador lab also includes mobile communication hubs (laptops, speakers, projectors) for use in our partner rural communities in Chalatenango and Cuscatlán to facilitate in-person, remote, and hybrid meetings. Our equipment includes computers, scanners, software, video cameras (both professional cameras and general-use cameras), audio recorders, a podcast kit, an Arrow Gold GPS unit, projectors, and a drone camera. The labs are hubs for learning, including regular training sessions for students, faculty, collaborators, and community members.