Meet Our Networkers in East Midlands

Covering: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland

Regional Adviser East Midlands

Colin Hyde
Cynthia Brown
Trustee, Regional Adviser East Midlands

Cynthia Brown

Regional Adviser East Midlands

Colin Hyde

I manage the East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA) at the University of Leicester. My involvement with oral history goes back to the Leicester Oral History Archive, which I joined in 1988. Since then, I have worked with many community-based oral history projects. I have been with the EMOHA since 2001 and from 2018-2021 I managed the Midlands hub of the British Library’s ‘Unlocking Our Sound Heritage’ project, which was based at the University of Leicester. This was followed by EMOHA’s ‘Sounds for the Future’ project, which was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. I have many years’ experience of giving advice, help and training in oral history. I have helped to create oral history related exhibitions, newsletters, books, videos and web exhibitions. Among many interests, I particularly like recording stories of urban environments, and creative uses of sound.

Cynthia Brown

Trustee, Regional Adviser East Midlands

Cynthia Brown

I am a Trustee of the Oral History Society, one of its Accredited Trainers, and a Regional Adviser for Leicestershire and Rutland. I started my oral history career in the 1990s in a community history unit at Leicester City Council, and in 2001 I helped to establish the HLF-funded East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA) at the University of Leicester, where I was Project Manager for three years. I have a particular interest in using oral history to research and interpret family history, and along with my colleague Mary Stewart I contributed an article on the subject, ‘Exploring encounters between families, their histories and archived oral histories’, to the Archives and Records journal in April 2017. Other articles include ‘Moving on: reflections on oral history and migrant communities in Britain’ in Oral History, Volume 34, No. 1. I have also written or edited a range of books using oral histories. I am now semi-retired but am still involved in historical research and writing alongside my involvement in the Oral History Society.

Posts from East Midlands

Regional Advisers’ Report for East Midlands 2025

Cynthia Brown & Colin Hyde, East Midlands Oral History Archive 10 March 2026

A web exhibition, Leicester in WW2, was created for the 80th anniversary of the end of WW2. Written by EMOHA with help from student volunteers, this uses a wide range of oral histories, photos, videos and original

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Regional Advisors’ Report for East Midlands

Colin Hyde & Cynthia Brown 17 March 2025

Colin Hyde- East Midlands Oral History Archive- East Midlands Regional Advisor The Sounds for the Future project finished at the end of October, but an underspend and matched funding has enabled us to extend some

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UKSADA launch photo of programme

Stories that Should be Told 

Cynthia Brown 1 December 2024

The new UK South Asian Digital Archive (UKSADA) project aims to create a comprehensive and accessible archive of the rich heritage of South Asians in Britain. It has its roots in an award-winning temporary exhibition, ‘Rebuilding Lives: 50 years of Ugandan Asians in Leicester’ in 2022, which highlighted the need for a more resource that will also raise awareness about the cultural heritage of South Asian communities through exhibitions, educational resources and events.

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EMOHA engineer dealing with a mouldy tape

Preserving Sounds for the Future

Colin Hyde 25 April 2024

This blog looks at the Sounds for the Future audio preservation project. It describes the work involved, emphasises how long cataloguing can take, warns about the cost of keeping playback equipment running, and shares the fun of outreach sessions.

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Kiyotaka Sato

A Japanese oral historian in Leicester

Kiyotaka Sato 11 August 2021

Between April 2001 and March 2002 Kiyotaka Sato was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Urban History and the East Midlands Oral History Archive (EMOHA) at the University of Leicester. During his time there he developed an interest in the history and culture of multi-ethnic Britain, and in particular in Leicester itself. Here he reflects on his subsequent research and the ‘Memory and Narrative’ series: a collection of biographical booklets that he published as a result of his work.

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