Collaborative Oral History in a Correctional Setting: Promise and Pitfalls

Abstract

This article examines the challenges of collaborative oral history research. Collaborative oral history—sometimes called "reciprocal ethnography"—involves the process of engaging our interviewees in the analysis of the interviews we generate and/or the creation of any products drawn from those interviews. The article contrasts the author's earlier experience on an oral history/photographic book with a more recent collaboration on an oral history and performance project in a correctional institution. The author focuses on the difficulties of "sharing authority" in collaborative research within a correctional setting, raising issues about the promise and pitfalls of collaborative oral history research more generally.