Network: Oral History Collective

This event will run fro 14:00-16:45 on Zoom. The link will be sent to registered delegates closer to the date.

This day is intended for early-stage researchers (postgraduate researchers ands PhD candidates) to share their experience conducting and utilising oral histories in their research. 

Our keynote speaker will be Professor Margaretta Jolly (University of Sussex), speaking on her insights from the Connected Histories of the BBC project.

This event will run from 13:30-16:45. A programme will be circulated to registered delegates closer to the date.

This event will see a number of experienced academic speakers explore their research projects and what was made of oral histories they produced in collaboration with their participants. We will discuss the final stages involved in oral histories related research, thinking through questions of transcription and analysis methods, as well as storage and open access. This broad focus, matching the progression of our event series, is only one of the aspects of our speakers' talks who will be sharing personal experiences and general reflections on this fascinating topic. Please, feel free to join with any level of experience and prior knowledge of the method.

Our core speakers will be:

• Dr Chris Hill (University of South Wales)
• Evelyn Curl (University of York)
• Dr Verusca Calabria (Nottingham Trent University)

Three key speakers and a Q&A expert shared their experiences and understanding of the core preparatory processes that require consideration before undertaking oral history-making. The topics discussed included ethical considerations, differences in international regulations and the emotional and mental well-being of the interviewer and interviewee. Whether you have worked with oral methodologies in the past or this is the first time you have considered working with oral testimonies, this event was a stimulating transdiciplinary conversation on methods (with a free buffet).

Paper One

Josh Alston (University of Leeds), ‘Not Planning an Oral History Project: Conducting an accidental oral history project’

Josh Alston says: “I am a PGR finishing a project on Jewish experiences of whiteness in South Africa at the University of Leeds. I consider myself broadly a historian of race within white supremacist societies. My research has focused on the intersection between Jewish and whiteness studies, with a particular emphasis on settler colonial contexts. I conducted about 40 interviews for my project with a variety of Jewish South Africans.”

Paper Two

Olivia Wyatt (Queen Mary, University of London), ‘Uses and Abuses: Oral narratives in the reconstruction of Black British History’

Olivia Wyatt (she/her) is a PhD student and Teaching Associate at QMUL whose research investigates the politics of complexion within Black British communities throughout the twentieth century. She recently co-organised The Issue of Truth: Representing Black British history conference at the Institute of Historical Research. Previously she worked on projects that explored the community activism of Black women in Leeds, the contributions of African women to the British health service (Young Historians Project) and the imperial connections between the Lascelles family and the Caribbean (Harewood House Trust). She is also a recipient of the Women’s History Network MA Dissertation Prize, the Marion Sharples Prize and the ACAP Inspirational Young Person of the Year Award.

Paper Three

Dr Sam Smith (University of Sheffield), ‘Oral History in Health and Social Care: Ethics and processes’

Sam Smith is a trainer for the Oral History Society and National Life Stories Dept at The British Library. He is also a regional networker for the Oral History Society in Yorkshire. He has over 15 years experience of working as an oral historian, including coordinating an oral history service in palliative and supportive care for Sheffield Teaching Hospitals. Other clients have included Health Education England and English Heritage. He recently completed a PhD at the University of Sheffield: ‘Understanding oral history in palliative and supportive care: a constructivist grounded theory study’. He is an honorary teacher in the School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Sheffield and regularly lectures in oral history and digital legacy.

Paper Four

Professor Julia Barrow (University of Leeds), Ethics Q&A session

Julia Barrow has been Professor of Medieval Studies at Leeds since 2012. She is a medievalist specialising in the history of bishops and clergy and in the study of medieval charters. She has been the School of History Research Ethics lead for the last four years.

Our second event was a deep-dive into conducting interviews with individuals and groups in person and online. Our core speakers shared their experience of first-hand oral history making.

Our core speakers were:

• Dr Juanita Cox (Institute for Historical Research)
• Dr Sarah Bornhorst (Berlin Wall Foundation)
• Dr Peter Dickson (Swansea University)
• Dr Lindsey Dodd (Independent Oral Historian)

Megan is a PhD student researching with the School of History at the University of Leeds. Her current research explores Indigenous Health Activism in settler colonial Australia, where she explores how community-controlled health organisations bridged politics of health to politics of identity by engaging with transnational discourses of Black Power and decoloniality in the 1970s. Meg is the lead organiser of the Oral History Collective and has special interests in experimenting with Research Methods and interrogating archives as a site of contested knowledge and power.

Diana is a PhD student at the University of York exploring Cultural Heritage Management. Her research project looks at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin and investigates how the values attached to this Cold War heritage site have been changing over the past 60 years. Diana will be interviewing different people about their connection to the site, including authorities, heritage professionals and citizens. As both the management and the history of the site continue to be contested, Diana looks forward to discussing approaches to conducting interviews in a considerate, ethical and sensitive manner in our seminar series. 

Matthew is a PhD student at the History Department, the University of York. His PhD examines UK-China-Hong Kong political relations during the 1980-90s. This project grew from his Master’s thesis in Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Oxford. A section of his thesis was recently published in The International History Review (DOI: 10.1080/07075332.2021.2024588) and won the Political Studies Association Conservatism Studies Group 2022 Research Prize. Matthew hopes to incorporate oral histories into his current research.

Lou is a PhD student at the University of Leeds working across the School of History and the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies. Her research focuses on the construction of colonial violence in official discourses of the French and Algerian states over the last 24 years years. Lou applies the social science method of discourse analysis to speeches, public statements and interviews of state actors to highlight the maintenance and disruption of particular framings. These discourses serve to contextualise contemporary memory-focused policies seeking appeasement and ‘reconciliation. Lou’s thesis will integrate oral histories of civil society actors who organise around the memory of colonial violence, to illustrate the reception of official discourses and their contestation.

Thomas’ current PhD title is ‘Can Confucianism’s Relational and Rooted Picture of the Self Help Us Understand the Values of Modern National (Right-Wing) Populist Voters in the UK and US?’ This is trying to learn lessons from Confucianism to understand the state of modern Western politics better. He is working on this project from October 2022 to April 2026.
He is also interested in the relationship between Confucianism and democracy in East Asian countries and is currently working on a paper entitled ‘Is Confucianism Synthesisable with a Laclauian Conception of Democracy?’. This is based on an MA essay that was submitted to the University of Sheffield on 6th June 2022.