Oral History Review Research Articles

Exploring the possibilities of Thomson’s fourth paradigm transformation—The case for a multimodal approach to digital oral history?

Abstract This article seeks to reorientate ‘digital oral history’ towards a new research paradigm, Multimodal Digital Oral History (MDOH), and in so doing it seeks to build upon Alistair Thomson’s (Thomson, A., 2007, Four paradigm transformations in oral history. Oral History Review, 34(1): 49–70.) characterization of a ‘dizzying digital revolution’ and paradigmatic transformation in oral history (OH). Calling for a recalibration of the current dominance of the textual transcript, and for active engagement with the oral, aural, and sonic affordances of both retro-digitized and born digital OH (DOH) collections, we call for a re-orientation of the digital from passive to generative and self-reflexive in the human–machine study of spoken word recordings. First, we take stock of the field of DOH as it is currently conceived and the ways in which it has or has not answered calls for a return to the orality of the interview by digital means. Secondly, we address the predominant trend of working with transcriptions in digital analysis of spoken word recordings and the tools being used by oral historians. Thirdly, we ask about the emerging possibilities—tools and experimental methodologies—for sonic analysis of spoken word collections within and beyond OH, looking to intersections with digital humanities, sociolinguistics, and sound studies. Lastly, we consider ethical questions and practicalities concomitant with data-driven methods, analyses and technologies like AI for the study of sonic research artefacts, reflections that dovetail with digital hermeneutics and digital tool criticism and point towards a new MDOH departure, a sub-field that has potential to inform the many fields that seek patterns in audio, audio-visual, and post-textual materials, serially and at scale.

Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle by Shannen Dee Williams

Reviewed by: Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle by Shannen Dee Williams Margaret Susan Thompson Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle. By Shannen Dee Williams. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2022. 424 pp. $29.95. Subversive Habits is the first book-length account of Black Catholic sisters in the United States. Based upon extensive research in relevant archives and numerous interviews with Black sisters (and former sisters) themselves, it fills an important gap in Catholic, Black, and women's history. Shannen Dee Williams's book aims at telling at least three interconnected but distinct stories: that of Black women in U.S. religious life, the experiences of and responses to racism that these sisters experienced, and their activism inside and outside the church. As the author puts it in her conclusion, her overarching objective is to demonstrate why "scholars must center the experiences of Black women and girls in the history of U.S. Catholicism, reconsider narratives that foreground white Catholics in struggles for racial, educational, and gender justice, and push back against characterizations of African American Catholics as politically complacent or conservative" (264). As she puts it in her final sentence, "It is my hope that this book, in offering a more honest accounting of the U.S. Catholic experience and the central place of Black sisters within it, can provide another pathway forward" (269). The result is a compelling and generally persuasive read. No one finishing Subversive Habits can be anything other than convinced of the racism that Black women have faced in the more than two centuries of women's religious life in the United States. Whether drawing upon archival sources or on her many oral history interviews, Williams [End Page 75] conveys both the frustrations and the real pain that Black women repeatedly faced—in communities comprised mainly of European Americans and even in African American congregations—as they attempted to live out their vocations. The suffering of those who were rejected as they tried to pursue vowed commitment, as well as those who experienced blatant racism both from clerics and from women religious themselves (including those who presumably were their "sisters"), is undeniable. The author makes a compelling case that Black Catholics, including Black sisters, have often been portrayed as objects rather than subjects, even of their own stories. Among the important and traditionally overlooked subjects she explores are the history of the National Black Sisters Conference, the consequences of desegregation for Black Catholic institutions (including Black sisters' congregations and the schools they conducted), and both the tensions and collaboration between Black clergy and women religious. The most original contributions Williams makes are in her coverage of the period from World War II (to the present), when her focus is simultaneously on women in predominantly Black communities and on those who attempted, with decidedly mixed success, to enter and remain in "white" ones. Here, she draws extensively on 67 interviews, mostly of Black women she interviewed either in person, by email, or over the telephone. Since many of the individuals are reflecting upon experiences—undeniably powerful and often searing—that occurred as much as a half century or more in the past, it would have been helpful had Williams given at least some methodological explanation as to how she dealt with the effect of the passage of time on these memories. [Two scholarly journals would have been helpful in this regard, History and Memory, and the Oral History Review, but both seem absent from the bibliography.] More troubling are instances where the principal sources cited for some generalizations are individual interviews. See, for example, the argument that white women, including sisters, were using the civil rights movement primarily as means of "gaining credibility and fame in order to launch a national campaign for (white) women's rights and ordination." [p. 190; also 249] While this may have been the case for some, the evidence is not sufficient to make a persuasively comprehensive claim. Perhaps a more nuanced argument ultimately would have been more effective. There are a few glitches in the narrative that may be frustrating to some. The name of Cardinal Joseph...

Oddolna historia mówiona

Artykuł jest poświęcony „egalitarnej” historii mówionej, kierującej swoją uwagę ku klasom ludowym, grupom zmarginalizowanym i wykluczonym z hegemonicznego dyskursu. Tekst ten pozostaje w dalszym ciągu aktualny dla polskich badań, także ze względu na refleksję dotyczącą politycznych i społecznych wymiarów działalności naukowej, jak również, traktowanej z rezerwą, jeśli nie z podejrzliwością, postawy osobistego zaangażowania.
 Tłumaczenia na podstawie: S. Lynd, Oral History From Below, „Oral History Review”, nr 21 (1/1993), s. 1–8. Powyższy artykuł został wygłoszony jako przemówienie inauguracyjne w październiku 1992 r. na corocznym spotkaniu Towarzystwa Historii Mówionej w Cleveland, Ohio (przyp. tłum.). Artykuł został przetłumaczony i przedrukowany za zgodą © Oxford University Press w imieniu OHA. OUP i OHA nie biorą odpowiedzialności za tłumaczenie tego artykułu. Pełną odpowiedzialność za tłumaczenie ponosi redakcja. Licencja nr 4316511208540 została udzielona przez © Oxford University Press. Artykuł z ograniczonymi prawami autorskimi. Zabrania się swobodnego tworzenia adaptacji, przeróbek i remiksów oraz publikowania, także w celach komercyjnych. Wszystkie prawa zastrzeżone. (przyp. red.).

Historia mówiona i Hard Times: Esej recenzyjny

Michael Frisch przypomina, jak bardzo skomplikowaną i niejednoznaczną naturę ma wiedza o przeszłości i teraźniejszości płynąca z ustnych opowieści. Autor analizuje spektrum możliwych znaczeń wpisywanych w trakcie lektury książek, jak stanowiąca punkt wyjścia do rozważań praca Studsa Terkela, Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression z roku 1970 i proponuje koncepcję „więcej historii – żadnej historii”.
 Przedruk z „Oral History Review”, 1979, t. 7, s. 70–79, za zgodą Stowarzyszenia Historii Mówionej (Oral History Association). Po raz pierwszy opublikowano w „Red Buffalo”, 1972, t. 1, nr 2/3. [Tłumaczenie za: M. Frisch, Oral History and Hard Times: A Review Essay, [w:] The Oral History Reader, red. R. Perks, A. Thompson, London 1998, s. 29–37. Zgoda na publikację przetłumaczonej wersji artykułu została udzielona przez Autora. Licencja CC BY-SA 4.0 (przyp. red.)].

After the Interview Ends: Moving Oral History Out of the Archives and into Publication

This article, following from the author’s article in volume 41, issue 2, of the Oral History Review, argues that oral history does not have to end with archival deposit of the interview, that put to use, interviews can be of value in our contemporary social life. It focuses on ethical and related issues involved in one particular form of moving interviews into the public sphere—publication.

“Confessing Animals,” Redux: A Conversation between Alexander Freund and Erin Jessee

In a recent article in the Oral History Review, “‘Confessing Animals’: Towards a Longue Durée History of the Oral History Interview,” Alexander Freund traces the evolution of the interview in the West, from Catholic confessions to YouTube, in order to provide a historicized critique of the oral history interview. In April 2014, at the request of the Review’s social media staff, Freund expanded on the ideas presented in the article through a series of e-mail exchanges with cultural anthropologist and oral historian Erin Jessee. Taking Freund’s article as their starting point, they tackle changing approaches to “storytelling,” address the importance of adapting interview techniques to the research environment, and discuss avenues for further research into the oral history interview’s past. An earlier, shorter version of this exchange appeared on Oxford's OUPBlog on April 25, 2014 and May 23, 2014.

Book Review: John Tutino, Editor, Mexico and Mexicans in the Making of the United States

Book Review| August 01 2013 Book Review: John Tutino, Editor, Mexico and Mexicans in the Making of the United States Tutino, John, Editor, Mexico and Mexicans in the Making of the United States. : University of Texas Press, 2012. 320 pp. Brandon H. Milá Brandon H. Milá University of North Texas Brandon Mila is a master’s student in Mexican American History at the University of North Texas. He was born and raised in Puerto Rico and has a passion for Latin American history. He is currently working on his thesis, which focuses on Alonso S. Perales, and he has a book review forthcoming in the Oral History Review. Brandon loves teaching and regularly works with ESL adult students who are trying to acquire their GED. Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos (2013) 29 (2): 543–545. https://doi.org/10.1525/msem.2013.29.2.543 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Brandon H. Milá; Book Review: John Tutino, Editor, Mexico and Mexicans in the Making of the United States. Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 1 August 2013; 29 (2): 543–545. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/msem.2013.29.2.543 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentMexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos Search This content is only available via PDF. © 2013 by The Regents of the University of California.2013 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Coda: Reading beyond the Pages of the OHR

You have reached the end of this issue of the Oral History Review (OHR)—or have you?! As it turns out, you have not: our editorial work has begun to extend beyond the pages you just finished readin...

Japan Oral History Review Author Guidelines for English Submissions Submission of manuscripts

Japan Oral History Review Author Guidelines for English Submissions Submission of manuscripts

Annual Bibliography: 2010

The compilers would like to thank Joan Allen, Owen Ashton, Francis Devine, Tony Elger, and Matt Perry for suggestions, additions, help, and advice. New additions include: Oral History Review (OHR). The Journal North West Labour History Journal (NWLHJ) is now known as North West Labour History (NWLH). The compilers would be grateful to hear of any omissions or suggestions. These can be sent by e-mail to adeebyasmin@gmail.com

Japan Oral History Review Author Guidelines

Japan Oral History Review Author Guidelines

Of Voices Few and Far between: White Appalachian Women Migrants in Postwar Chicago, 1950–70

Oral history has been an indispensible tool in documenting the lives of those previously invisible from broad historical movements of people. The Oral History Review has been among the major vehicles for the inclusion of women's voices. The migration of white southerners is well documented in historical literature. However, most historical accounts of the postwar urban migration of millions of whites from the South have focused on the male experience. While women are conspicuously absent from discussions of the southern Diaspora, Appalachian women as subjects of research are even more obscure. In this article, the voices of Appalachian women are at the center of the migration experience to Uptown, Chicago. In addition to secondary sources, the content of personal interviews reveals how Appalachian women responded to the demands of migration and urban life in postwar Chicago.

Japan Oral History Review Author Guidelines

Japan Oral History Review Author Guidelines

Japan Oral History Review Author Guidelines

Japan Oral History Review Author Guidelines

Kamp, M. The new woman in Uzbekistan: Islam, modernity, and unveiling under communism

Marianne Kamp’s recent book on women and the state in the first third of the twentieth century adds a new set of voices to the discussion, those of the women themselves. Kamp’s work is based on interviews she did in Uzbekistan not long after its independence and although only a few of them are presented at length here, Kamp’s sophisticated work elsewhere (2001, ‘Three Lives of Saodat,’ Oral History Review 28/2: 21–58), echoing the ideas of Sheila Fitzpatrick in Tear Off the Masks!: Identity and Imposture in Twentieth-Century Russia (2005), demonstrates that she knows and controls far more material than she had space to present here. The work is a qualitative history, not a quantitative one. The book’s ten chapters consist of four major sections: context up to and including the Soviet revolution (the Introduction and Chapters 1–3), education and women’s self-understanding (Chapters 4, 5), unveiling and its consequences (Chapters 6–8) and the situation in 1940s and after (Chapters 9, 10). Not surprisingly, the three chapters on unveiling, discussing the hujum (translated as ‘attack or assault’ [against the ‘veil’]) encompass nearly a third of the total length of the book, and include descriptions of what women went through. Kamp uses ‘veiling’ as a shorthand; like everywhere else, what the local culture construed as ‘required by Islam’ is more focused on the urban women (a point Kamp makes as well), and seems to have desired most intently to keep women’s faces covered in public. The local variant included a paranji (a robelike garment worn on the head and reaching down to the ankles) and a chachvon (a horsehair veil covering the face). The ‘unveiling’ here that the Soviet government encouraged was removing these two garments, leaving the hair covered by a scarf or hat. Cont Islam (2009) 3:191–193 DOI 10.1007/s11562-008-0056-9

Speech Is Dead; Long Live Speech

Speech Is Dead; Long Live Speech

Japan Oral History Review Author Guidelines

Japan Oral History Review Author Guidelines

Commentary - Sharing Authority

(2003). Commentary - Sharing Authority. The Oral History Review: Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 103-110.

Commentary - Sharing Authority: Oral History and the Collaborative Process

(2003). Commentary - Sharing Authority: Oral History and the Collaborative Process. The Oral History Review: Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 111-113.

From Childhood Storytelling to Oral History Interviews

(2002). From Childhood Storytelling to Oral History Interviews. The Oral History Review: Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 119-126.