World Oral Literature Project

The World Oral Literature Project is an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record.

Established at the University of Cambridge in 2009, the project aspires to become a permanent centre for the appreciation and preservation of oral literature and collaborate with local communities to document their own oral narratives. The World Oral Literature Project will also publish a library of oral texts and occasional papers, and make the collections accessible through new media platforms.

The project has expanded and now acts to support local communities and committed fieldworkers engaged in the collection and preservation of all forms of oral literature by providing funding for original research, alongside training in fieldwork and digital archiving methods.