About the Book
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Oral History is a comprehensive examination of oral history which addresses a wide range of practitioners, from beginning students to graduate students and established scholars, community and freelance practitioners in the field, and those from other fields and disciplines interested in oral history. The purpose of the book is to provide a broad range of readers with:
* An advanced introduction into and overview of the field;
* Cutting-edge reflections on core themes in the field; and
* Global comparative perspectives on oral history theory and practice
The Handbook is arranged in five thematic Parts: Creating Interviews, Interpreting Oral Histories, Making Histories, Advocacy & Empowerment, and Big Questions & Future Directions. Each chapter documents the state-of-the-art in a particular subject area and surveys the international historiography and current debates. Each chapter concludes with a brief outlook of potential future developments in the field.
With chapter authors from every region of the oral history world - North America, South America, Oceania, Africa, Asia and Europe - and each author making use of examples and scholarship from across the global field of oral history, this volume represents the first truly international handbook of oral history.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Oral History
Part 1 – Creating Interviews
Introduction
1. Designing Ethical Oral History Projects and Partnerships Carla Pascoe Leahy (University of Tasmania, Australia)
2. The Interview Relationship: Issues and approaches Pablo Pozzi (University of Buenos Aires, Argentina)
3. Varieties of Interviewing Amy Starecheski (Columbia University, USA)
4. Deep Listening and Difficult Remembering Sean Field (University of Cape Town, South Africa)
5. Documenting and Preserving Interviews in a Digital Age Malin Thor Tureby (Linköping University, Sweden)
Part 2 – Interpreting Oral Histories
Introduction
6. Memory as Evidence: Psycho-social approaches to interpreting life stories Anna Green (Victoria University Wellington, New Zealand)
7. Analysing Language and Narrative, Voice, Body and Emotion Lindsey Dodd (Huddersfield University, UK)
8. Thematic Interpretation of Interview Sets TBC
9. Intersectional Interpretation Katrina Srigley (Nipissing University, Canada)
10. Negotiating Interpretative Authority Ricardo Santhiago (Federal University of São Paulo, Brazil)
Part 3 – Making Histories
Introduction
11. Writing History using Interviews Kathy Nasstrom (University of San Francisco, USA)
12. Oral History and Creative Writing TBC
13. Making Oral History Exhibitions and Place-Based Installations TBC
14. Making Audio Visual Histories TBC
15. Performing Oral History Clare Summerskill (Royal Holloway University of London, UK)
Part 4 – Advocacy & Empowerment
Introduction
16. The Interviewee’s Experience of Oral History Anna Sheftel (Concordia University, Canada)
17. Oral History, Public Engagement and ‘Community’ Advocacy TBC
18. Doing Oral History ‘At Home’ Leyla Neyzi (Sabanci University, Turkey)
19. Testimony and Historical ‘Truth’ Commissions Anna Bryson (Queens University, UK)
20. Oral History, Policy and Professional Practice Alison Chand (University of Strathclyde, UK)
21. Teaching Oral History TBC
Part 5 – Big Questions and Future Directions
Introduction
22. Oral History and Indigenous Peoples: Indigenizing and decolonizing oral history Nepia Mahuika (University of Waikato, New Zealand)
23. Oral History and our Planetary Future Andrea Gaynor (University of Western Australia, Australia)
24. Oral History and Digital Futures Doug Boyd (University of Kentucky, USA)
25. Oral History in an Autobiographical /Surveillance Age Alexander Freund (University of Winnipeg, Canada)
Select Bibliography
Index
About the Author :
Alexander Freund is Professor of History and holds the Chair in German-Canadian Studies at the University of Winnipeg, Canada. He co-founded the UWinnipeg Oral History Centre, has been active in the International Oral History Association and several national oral history associations. He has published widely in oral history and is the author of Being German-Canadian: History, Memory, and Generations (2021).
Erin Jessee is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Glasgow, UK, where she works across the program’s research streams in oral history, war studies, gender history, and global history. She has fifteen years of experience working in Rwanda, among other conflict-affected contexts, and is the author of Negotiating Genocide in Rwanda (2017). More recently, she has begun focusing on early Rwandan history and cultural heritage studies, and has co-authored an oral history—based graphic novel, Nyiragitwa, among other publications.
Alistair Thomson is Professor of History at Monash University, Australia and President of Oral History Australia. He previously served as President of the International Oral History Association (2006-08) and editor of the British journal Oral History (1991-2007). His oral history books include: Anzac Memories (1994 and 2013), The Oral History Reader (1998, 2006 and 2015 with Robert Perks), Ten Pound Poms (2005, with Jim Hammerton), Moving Stories: an intimate history of four women across two countries (2011), Oral History and Photography (2011, with Alexander Freund), and Australian Lives: An Intimate History (2017, with Anisa Puri).
Review :
Oral History has come of age as an historical methodology. In this Handbook the editors have assembled an invaluable and provocative collection of interventions by international scholars addressing oral history practice, theory, interpretation and its place as an animator of policy and social and political change. As both a review of the state of the field and a predictor of future developments, this book will be an essential reference point for anyone who seeks to engage with and understand the past through conversations with those who experienced it.
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Oral History takes on—and greatly succeeds at—the challenging task of assessing the practice from diverse angles through a multidisciplinary, global lens. It offers groundbreaking insights into the constructed and contested nature of oral history today, invigorated by contributions from leading thinkers and practitioners.
