Judith Monachina

Season 1 - Episode 7

Judith Monachina has understated moxie and wonders if she even possesses it! We’ve convinced her otherwise. She is currently the Director of the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield, MA.  In that role, she records and archives the fascinating moxie stories of her subjects.

Judith loves a good story—about the lives of those around her, past and present. She has a journalistic eye for where the story lies and the compassion and humanity to draw it out for others to listen to and learn from.

In 2007, she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in journalism and researched the lives and memories of individuals from the Jewish community in fascist Milan, Italy.  She studied at the primary Holocaust archive in Italy: The Center for the Documentation of Contemporary Jewish History. This work prompted her to ask: What happens when stories disappear? What do we do with memory? These questions ignited her interest in oral history.

Judith is also the Project Director for the Paper Town Projects, creating a documentary about the 200-year paper-making legacy in Lee, MA.  Before all these impressive pursuits,  Judith was the associate director of Public Affairs at Bard College at Simon’s Rock, director of the Career Education department at Columbia University, and a journalist, photographer, and freelance writer for numerous publications.

Resource Links

• Judith Monachina website
• Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center
• Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College
• A Sense of Place: Stories from the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College Podcast
• The Center for Documentation of Contemporary Jewish History
• Paper Town Projects
• Housatonic Heritage – Main Street Magazine
• “Housatonic in the 70s: Examining the Culture” An Oral History Podcast – Main Street Magazine
• Do it Yourself Oral History in Main Street Magazine page 37 article by Judith Monachina

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