Oral History Project Research Articles

Women as decision‐makers in the Australian wine industry, 1960s–1990s

AbstractIn the early 2000s international business scholar Ann Matasar declared of the rapidly globalising grape wine sector that no other industry had ‘so resolutely excluded women from positions of influence for so long.’ Following Florine Livat and Clara Jaffré that women on the supply side of wine remain understudied, this article draws upon a large‐scale oral history project (Treading Out the Vintage 2000–2003) to make visible women as industry decision‐makers between the 1960s and 1990s. This qualitative data set nuances Matasar's findings about the relatively limited opportunities for women to exert industry influence in a historically male domain. With family farming as the main entry point to the Australian industry, few women became decision‐makers in this era, compared with women in urban sectors of the economy that benefited from gains in gender equality. Women who attained industry influence demonstrated enthusiasm and resilience while experiencing sexism and, often, balancing reproductive and domestic labour with agricultural business.

When Grief Arrives: An oral history of grief and death within queer, trans and Black, Indigenous and people of colour communities

When Grief Arrives is a narrative therapy and oral history project aimed at re-storying narratives of grief and loss within queer, trans and Black, Indigenous and people of colour communities. The project documents multi-storied accounts of grief that resist the individualisation and isolation of grieving that is common under settler colonialism and capitalism. By honouring overlooked landscapes of experience, the project seeks to generate solidarity and interconnection through shared knowledges. This article discusses the project’s methodology, ethical considerations, and the transformative potential of collective storytelling in fostering solidarity and healing within marginalised communities.

‘The Store’ Oral History Project

ABSTRACT The Store Oral History Project is a collection of 20 oral histories gathered from members of the Newcastle community in 2019, sharing their thoughts and memories of the Newcastle and Suburban Co-operative Society Ltd, known locally as ‘The Store’. The project builds on existing knowledge about ‘The Store’ that was the biggest and most successful co-operative society in Australia, established in 1898. In 1974, at its peak it operated 15 other retail branches and had 98,000 members and employed 1450 workers. 1 It provided grocery, retail goods, services including a health fund, funeral fund, travel agency. Eventually, increased shopper mobility and competition from suburban shopping centres saw ‘The Store’ close in 1981 after 83 years of service. Closure left a lasting impact upon the community and in the wake of the demolition and renewal of the former Hunter Street site, this project commemorates and celebrates The Store's legacy. This article discusses how the project provided a unique opportunity for a university Library to collaborate with industry partners, the community, employed students and provided Work Integrated learning students’ opportunities to build GLAM sector knowledge and skills. Twenty oral histories are publicly available on Livinghistories@UON. 2 These amplified voices of ‘The Store’ add meaning to existing narratives, as well as the University’s archival holdings of this old Newcastle icon. In 2019, the University of Newcastle (Australia) Auchmuty library embarked on a new project aimed to record stories associated with The Newcastle and Suburban Co-operative Society Ltd, known locally as ‘The Store’, established in Newcastle West, in 1898. The main store building opened in Hunter Street Newcastle, New South Wales, in 1906.

A history of restorative justice in Scotland: The evolving nature of an innovation in criminal justice policy and practice

AbstractHigh‐level political support for restorative justice in Scotland is at its strongest for many years, and yet its availability is lower now than in the mid‐2000s. To explore the reasons behind this paradox, we undertook an oral history project focused on the origins and development of restorative justice in Scotland. Based on 15 interviews with professionals, we tracked how the nature, objectives and scale of restorative justice has evolved in Scotland over time. Our analysis shows how the meaning and purpose of justice initiatives can shift, providing insight into policy development and broader debates about the role of justice responses.

Windrush Members’ Encounters with the ‘Hostile Environment’ and a Deficit of Citizenship: Centring an Agentive Citizenship Experience

This article is part of a broader, collaborative Oral History project working with members of the Windrush community to explore their experience of the ‘Hostile Environment’ and their own reckoning with a historical injustice, beginning pre-2012. This article focuses on the experience of three Windrush members and their encounters with the ‘Hostile Environment’ regime from 2012 onwards, particularly the actualisation of their exclusion from British citizenship as a denial of access to ‘everyday’ citizenship. Citizenship is interpreted from a grassroots level, through the individual’s lens on how their life was uprooted in terms of their livelihood, security, wellbeing and social connection through encounters with the ‘Hostile Environment’ regime. During the data gathering process, a shared understanding of the activist nature of this research was established, creating a space within which participants were asked to reflect on and critique the state’s bordering of British citizenship and the participants’ identification as illegal within this. This article defends an agentive interpretation of citizenship as an experience that is holistically felt and made meaningful, consciously negotiated within state-imposed structures of law, enforcement and entitlement access, and then wielded as a subjectivity whereby individuals claim a more dignified existence. For members of the Windrush Generation who were left de facto stateless due to a lack of sufficient legal identification in the eyes of the state, their deficit of citizenship experience from the margins of British citizenship leaves them well positioned to critique and challenge the entrenched form of citizenship expressed through the ‘Hostile Environment’ regime.This article is part of a broader, collaborative Oral History project working with members of the Windrush community to explore their experience of the ‘Hostile Environment’ and their own reckoning with a historical injustice, beginning pre-2012.

“To live your life not in vain”. Ukrainian academics’ experience of forced migration in Poland

The authors consider the forced migration of Ukrainian academics to Poland caused by the Russian-Ukrainian War, particularly the expansion of communication between the Ukrainian and Polish academic communities and the experience gained in this process. The study is based on the analysis of a body of interviews with Ukrainian academics in forced migration and their Polish colleagues who were directly involved in aiding Ukrainians. The interviews were collected as part of the oral history project “‘Moving West’: Ukrainian Academics in Conditions of Forced Migration (2014-2023).” The authors focus on several main themes: Ukrainian migrants’ decision to leave the country and Polish respondents’ decision to get involved in helping Ukrainian refugees (the moment of‘challenge’), making sense of the new reality (the moment of the ‘meeting of two cultures’), adaptation to the new conditions, and reflection on the experience gained (the moment of ‘construction of specific strategies of behavior’).

Critical socio-emotional inquiry: A longitudinal oral history project led by middle school students on socio-emotional well-being

A group of middle school students, working with educators in Washington Heights, NYC, designed a school-wide oral history project as a strategy to enrich the cultural and socio-emotional well-being of our school. As part of New York State’s required SEL intervention, we developed a Longitudinal Oral History Project, led by middle school students at S2, where we gathered peer-to-peer narratives about socio-emotional dynamics from middle schoolers growing up in working-class and immigrant households in times of pandemic and racial uprisings. The oral history protocol, the implementation of the interviews, the analysis, and the presentation of our results were youth-led, and compelling. Narrating rich and complex stories of joy, fear, courage, and care, our project centers the expertise of immigrant students of color, coming out of COVID-19 in the throes of early adolescence. The youth found great relief in discovering that their fears and anxieties were widespread and experienced a sense of power by influencing school policy with the compelling results of their inquiry.

Community and Commerce

“‘Where Do We Go from Here?’: Histories of Long-term Black Business Ownership, Community, and Family in Los Angeles County” is an oral history project of African American business owners conducted by the UCLA Center for Oral History Research. This report describes the design and implementation of the project, the challenges of outreach, and the ways in which narrators participated and negotiated their own agendas and investments in the project. It also argues for the importance of business oral history as a means of documenting African American community and social history. As this project shows, business oral histories can record the daily particulars of small business’s operations and the challenges business owners face, offer insight into the legacy of African American multi-generational businesses, demonstrate the on-going impact of racism and segregation on Black-owned businesses, and give evidence of how Black business owners conceive their relationship and responsibilities to the African American community.

Life is always learning: A qualitative analysis of undergraduate student and older adult reflections on an oral history project

ABSTRACT Interaction between generations is diminishing and fostering intergenerational contact can benefit both parties involved. The aim of this qualitative study was to develop a deeper understanding of the meaning of participating in an intergenerational oral history project using a phenomenological approach. Undergraduate students (n = 21) interviewed a family member or friend in three, 45–60-minute sessions. After the last interview, each older adult/student pair met to share what the project meant to them. Audio recordings of these final reflections were analyzed using a thematic analysis process. Five themes emerged: reflection, learning, meaningful connections, evoked emotions, and advice. The five themes were common to both students and older adults, whereas subthemes differed between groups within four of the themes (reflection, learning, evoked emotions, and advice). Consistent with previous research, findings support that participating in an oral history project is beneficial for both groups. This study adds to the literature by revealing that students, in addition to older adults, also reflected on their lives. Both groups learnedas a result of this project and the project evoked emotions. Theoretical implications of this study include that engaging in reminiscence supports psychological development in late-life, according to Erikson’s model. Further, congruent with Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning, the experience challenged participants to consider how telling and/or hearing a life story fits or does not fit with prior thoughts.

Capturing that which is Fleeting: Using History Harvests to Collect Rapid Response Oral Histories of Disaster Experience

ABSTRACT This article interrogates how oral historians can meaningfully participate in rapid response research after disasters as part of both short- and long-term collection efforts. The article first examines the known barriers to setting up rapid response oral history projects. Second, it proposes the use of a modified public history collections method known as a “History Harvest” to provide a valuable baseline for community experience of an incident’s impact that adds to current methods. Overall, this article emphasizes the importance of oral history collection in assisting communities in documenting their experiences with disasters and preserving memories of these events before they fade.

A Black Women’s Practice: Oral History from Fisk University’s Ex-slave Narratives and the Black Women Oral History Project

ABSTRACT Building on recent works that question a simplistic, White narrative of the history of academic oral history, this article focuses on the labors of Black women related to the field. It spans the fifty years during which the first oral history programs began and the Oral History Association came to prominence by highlighting two twentieth-century bookends: Ophelia Settle Egypt collecting ex-slave narratives at Fisk University in the 1920s and the Black Women Oral History Project at Radcliffe College’s Schlesinger Library in the 1970s. 1 Spotlighting Black women’s oral history work—from project design, advising, and funding, to interviewing, transcribing, project management, and archiving—demonstrates how they developed ethos and practices that reflected themselves and their communities as part of the larger field and best practices. Their approaches are precursors to many of today’s innovations in oral history methods and theories.

Building bridges and preserving voices: key factors in community oral history stewardship

PurposeThe study aims to enhance our understanding of shared community oral history stewardship by exploring its practices and challenges from the perspectives of the stakeholders involved.Design/methodology/approachThis study employed in-depth semi-structured interviews with community oral history stewards. Each interview focused on their experiences and perspectives regarding community-based oral history projects. The interview data were transcribed and analyzed using a grounded theory approach.FindingsCommunity oral history stewards found oral history stewardship entails substantial effort, long-term commitment, and challenges. They concurred on the importance of partnerships between communities and archives in preserving community stories, with institutional archives providing valuable support, resources, and engagement beyond mere preservation platforms. Establishing trust between communities and archives emerged as a fundamental requirement for fruitful collaboration.Originality/valueCommunity oral history has stood out as the prevailing form within the theory and practice of oral history, but its shared stewardship practices have not been thoroughly explored from the stakeholders' viewpoints.

Case study on a scientific oral history project using information practice analysis

Introduction. This investigation explored 21st century stewardship of a late 20th century scientific oral history project through the lens of information practice. Oral history project stewardship and reuse are understudied. Literature review. Oral histories foreground human agency in the world. Often studied singly, many reflect an oral history project’s historiographic context. Stewardship documentation by multiple stakeholders accrues over time. The author developed an information practice analysis tool for systematic exploration of oral history stewardship documentation. Method. A case study approach and qualitative content analysis techniques guided investigation of documentation for an oral history project held at Science History Institute in Philadelphia. Textual data was collected for a purposive sample. Analysis and results. Multiple stakeholders’ documentation schema for the purposive sample were analysed in Excel and Word. Results coded five information work models for stakeholder information practices. Discussion. The information work models portrayed stakeholder information practices as mechanisms for stability in the stewardship of contextual assets, and mechanisms for transformation through staff knowledge, as situational assets. Conclusion. Information practice analysis of oral history stewardship in this case study systematised stakeholders’ and user perspectives on access. Implications for theory development lie in leveraging the stability and transformative agency of stewardship and reuse.

구술사를 통해 본 농촌 노인 집단의 분화와 재편 : 경기도 화성시를 중심으로

구술사를 통해 본 농촌 노인 집단의 분화와 재편 : 경기도 화성시를 중심으로

Дигиталните устни истории във висшето образование и академичните библиотеки: потенциал и развитие

Abstract: In the realm of academic research, accessing, creating, preserving, and disseminating historical narratives is of paramount importance. Oral histories, in particular, offer a unique perspective, capturing personal experiences, emotions, and cultural nuances that traditional written records may overlook. With the advent of digital technology, the oral history is undergoing a transformative change. The article examines the development of digital oral histories and the opportunities they offer in higher education and academic libraries. The review includes an analysis of the specifics of traditional and digital oral histories, the role of academic centers in the development of digital oral history projects, and identifies the potential for enriching learning experiences and research. In addi¬tion, the challenges and opportunities for the development of digital oral histories in the future are considered, emphasizing the role of the academic library in this process. Keywords: oral history, digital oral history; academic libraries; higher education; educational techniques.

Literal Belonging: Safe Outdoor Spaces Modeling Oral History Making

ABSTRACT In this article, I cite oral history narratives donated by people living and working at Safe Outdoor Spaces (SOS)—sanctioned campsites in Denver, Colorado—to propose that SOS sites (which follow a harm reductionist stance, offer physical safety, and are largely staffed by peer navigators) offer a model for oral history making that takes place daily and off the record. As oral history projects contribute to representational belonging in archives and historical records, we might also consider the ways in which oral history making can create a belonging that is lived, inherent, and literal. By framing SOS sites as one possible living model for oral history making, this article demonstrates how oral history might shape not only our future understanding of the past but also the way our society lives in the present.

Education, work and social mobility in Britain’s former coalfield communities: reflections from an oral history project

ABSTRACT This paper draws on an oral history project which focuses on former coalminers’ experiences of education and training. It presents the stories of five participants, all of whom undertook significant programmes of post-compulsory education during or immediately after leaving the coal industry and achieved a degree of social mobility over the course of their working lives. The paper compares and contrasts their experiences with those which now exist in Britain’s former coalmining communities which, it is argued, have been substantively attenuated over time, especially for young men. Whilst it is evident that individual choice and motivation can play an important role in helping (or hindering) young people’s journeys through education and employment, the central argument of the paper is that individual labour market success lies at the intersection of structure and agency – although the data presented also demonstrate the extent to which opportunities available to young men in the former coalfields have been diminished by de-industrialisation.

Da and its mothers of the martyred: meaning and contest in an Iranian war memoir

ABSTRACT Zahra Husayni’s war memoir Da (2008) is widely recognized as one of the most successful productions of Hawzah-yi Hunari’s Holy Defence oral history project. Focusing on this work and by using a combination of paratextual analysis and close reading, the present article explores the dynamics of meaning-making as a contested phenomenon within the propagandist messaging of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The analysis hinges on the fact that despite the official promotion of this memoir as a tribute to the mothers of martyrs of the Iran-Iraq War, the narratives of these mothers are surprisingly marginalized within the text. Approaching the Holy Defence discourse as a Lyotardian grand narrative, this article raises the question whether in light of this discrepancy, a counter-discursive reading of Da is possible. Exploring this question provides insight into the construction and propagation of meaning in the Holy Defence war memoirs industry in Iran.

CULTURAL FORM AND PROTEST: ACT UP NEW YORK’S TACTICS OF IRONY AND CAMP

The strategic use of irony and camp in protest movements presents a complex interplay between cultural expression and social action. We examine the deployment of these cultural forms in AIDS activism, proposing a social theory of irony and camp in protest. Through an analysis of 188 interviews from the ACT UP Oral History project, we identify three primary effects of irony and camp: diffusion of tension and critique engagement, solidarity building and recruitment facilitation, and invitation across symbolic boundaries to undermine legitimacy. These outcomes stem from the unique cultural forms of irony and camp, which accentuate the incongruities in protest situations and draw attention to symbolic boundaries between discursive communities. Our findings challenge the predominant focus on frame analysis in the cultural analysis of protests, advocating for a deeper examination of how ideas are communicated within social movements.

"So Rude and So Crude"


 The purpose of this research is to highlight the impact that urban renewal had on African American communities in Charlotte, Borth Carolina between the 1950s and 1970s, specifically the Brooklyn community. The work identifies the numerous facets of culture that existed in the Brooklyn community, and how urban renewal led to the destruction of that culture. After establishing a socially inclusive definition of culture, this work portrays the existence of a strong and vibrant culture within the Brooklyn community and how urban renewal was used in the erasure of this culture. Previous research has examined the impact that urban renewal has had on inner cities, on different ethnic groups, and the ways in which white city leaders used urban renewal to continue residential segregation. My research differs by investigating the specific impact that urban renewal had on African American culture, analyzing the effect the destruction of the physical community of Brooklyn had on the community’s culture. This paper relies heavily on my analysis of an oral history project overseen by Dr. Karen Flint, which includes over forty interviews with former Brooklyn residents. My paper concludes that Charlotte’s white leaders’ inherent racism led to the destruction of Brooklyn’s physical community, which contributed to the forced displacement of residents and to the destruction of Brooklyn’s pre-displacement culture. This research is important both to recognize the strength and significance of the Brooklyn community’s culture and to understand how racism in Charlotte’s past has shaped the current residential landscape of Charlotte.