In OHR’s spring 2023 issue, scholar Katherine Waugh analyzes the methodological challenges oral historians face with technological fluctuations. Focusing on the post-pandemic wave of remote interviewing that has expanded oral historians’ ability to conduct interviews, Waugh considers the difficulties that scholars face in “connecting” to narrators in a virtual world. “Failing to Connect? Methodological Reflections on Video-Call […]
StoryCorps may perhaps be the United States’ most familiar and largest oral history project, yet many oral historians have trouble knowing whether to embrace it as such. Guest contributor Aubrey Parke suggests that another lens through which to consider StoryCorps is digital humanities, with its ethos of crowdsourcing and collaborative forms of publication. What can […]
Inspired by a session at the recent Oral History Association annual meeting, which occurred virtually in October, oral historian Troy Reeves reflects on a particular peril of the profession: interviews can be emotional and traumatic, and interviewers may not be as versed in self-care as we are in asking good questions. Troy invites us to […]
Across the world, university students’ lives were upended by the coronavirus pandemic, with the essential community structures enabled by face-to-face interaction no longer possible. Yale senior Henry Jacob and his co-producers launched a podcast to help keep the community connected, with a built in archival structure that preserves the podcast as a primary source, documenting […]
In OHR‘s ongoing series investigating how COVID-19 is changing the field of oral history, this post by Shu Wan discusses the implications of “digitizing” the interview process itself, with remote interviews conducted over web cams and microphones. What happens when uninvited guests appear in the interview? By Shu Wan During the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing […]
OHR solicited essays on the implications of interviewing during and about COVID-19. We are excited to publish these online today, and in print in the upcoming issue. By Janneken Smucker, Abigail Perkiss, and David Caruso Back in April, which simultaneously feels like two days ago and two years ago, the OHR editorial team contemplated how […]
In our most recent issue, Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla discusses the role of laughter—as distinct from humor—during oral history interviews in “Laughter in Oral Histories of Displacement: ‘One Goes on a Mission to Solve Their Problems,’” demonstrating the unconscious role of emotions in processing memories. Why should we study laughter within the context of oral history interviews? […]
In our latest installment of OHR Conversations, our recorded conversations with oral history practitioners and scholars, Na Li and OHR co-editor Janneken Smucker discuss her recent OHR article, “History, Memory, and Identity: Oral History in China,” examining the popular and public role of oral history in shaping Chinese consciousness. OHR Conversations, between Na Li and […]
As we have collectively hit pause on many routines, projects, and plans, oral historians are considering whether it’s time to pick up the recorder again, and if so, how to conduct interviews from a social distance. The field has long prioritized in-person interviews, but the current pandemic has led some to adapt practices to our […]
OHR has committed to being a forum for discussions among practitioners regarding ways to ethically and logistically conduct interviews in the face of COVID-19. Kicking off this series is Stephanie Snow and Angela Whitecross from the Centre for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine, at the University of Manchester, project leaders of NHS at […]
