Oral History Off the Record

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Anna Sheftel, Stacey Zembrzycki

      Pages 1-19

3. Reflections on a Lifetime of Listening

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 21-23

      PDF

   2. From California to Kufr Nameh and Back: Reflections on 40 Years of Feminist Oral History

      • Sherna Berger Gluck

      Pages 25-42

   3. “On” and “Off” the Record in Shifting Times and Circumstances

      • Julie Cruikshank, Tatiana Argounova-Low

      Pages 43-58

   4. Politics and Praxis in Canadian Working-Class Oral History

      • Joan Sangster

      Pages 59-75

4. Encounters in Vulnerability, Familiarity, and Friendship

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 77-80

      PDF

   2. The Vulnerable Listener

      • Martha Norkunas

      Pages 81-96

   3. Listen and Learn: Familiarity and Feeling in the Oral History Interview

      • Alan Wong

      Pages 97-111

   4. Going Places: Helping Youth with Refugee Experiences Take Their Stories Public

      • Elizabeth Miller

      Pages 113-127

   5. Not Just Another Interviewee: Befriending a Holocaust Survivor

      • Stacey Zembrzycki

      Pages 129-144

5. The Intersection of Ethics and Politics

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 145-148

      PDF

   2. I Can Hear Lois Now: Corrections to My Story of the Internment of Japanese Canadians—“For the Record”

      • Pamela Sugiman

      Pages 149-167

   3. Third Parties in “Third Spaces”: Reflecting on the Role of the Translator in Oral History Interviews with Iraqi Diasporic Women

      • Nadia Jones-Gailani

      Pages 169-183

   4. “If you’d told me you wanted to talk about the ’60s, I wouldn’t have called you back”: Reflections on Collective Memory and the Practice of Oral History

      • Nancy Janovicek

      Pages 185-199

   5. The Ethical Murk of Using Testimony in Oral Historical Research in South Africa

      • Monica Eileen Patterson

      Pages 201-218

6. Considering Silence

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 219-222

      PDF

   2. Toward an Ethics of Silence? Negotiating Off-the-Record Events and Identity in Oral History

      • Alexander Freund

      Pages 223-238

   3. The Heart of Activism in Colombia: Reflections on Activism and Oral History Research in a Conflict Area

      • Luis van Isschot

      Pages 239-253

   4. “I don’t fancy history very much”: Reflections on Interviewee Recruitment and Refusal in Bosnia-Herzegovina

      • Anna Sheftel

      Pages 255-271

Because oral history interviews are personal interactions between human beings, they rarely conform to a methodological ideal. These reflections from oral historians provide honest and rigorous analyses of actual oral history practice that address the complexities of a human-centered methodology.

• Christoph Willibald Gluck
• ethics
• ethnography
• feminism
• history
• Holocaust
• identity
• interaction
• interview
• memory
• methodology
• politics

“By acknowledging the personal impact of doing oral history work, this valuable collection of reflections is a wonderful bridge among academic disciplines as well as for those of us who practice oral history outside of academia: all practitioners are important to include in these ethical and theoretical discussions.” (Sady Sullivan, The Oral History Review, Vol. 44 (2), 2017)

' the essays in this collection reflect on those sensitive, uncomfortable and sometimes daunting moments in interviews that are usually left unmentioned. They show that the required skills of openness and patience can be gained only through practice and conscious critical evaluation of what we learn in theory. I found the essays wise and constructive in presenting the political, ethical and personal challenges that researchers face in interactions with subjects of their studies.' - LSE Review of Books Blog

"Oral History Off the Record, an interdisciplinary collection of essays, will appeal to a beginner learning oral history methods as well as the accomplished practitioner. The contributors are so honest, so willing to make themselves vulnerable, that you feel compelled to think deeply about issues in the oral history interview that were scarcely alluded to earlier. You won't want to put this book down, but if you have to, you will find yourself continuing to think about it." - Valerie Yow, author of Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences

"The interview is the keystone of our practice. This volume opens up that practice to self-reflexive scrutiny and interrogation and introduces the reader - the old hand as much as the newcomer - to honest appraisals of the interview process by some of the best known practitioners in the field. Oral History Off the Record is an honest and insightful appraisal of how we go about our craft from a range of disciplinary perspectives. The contributors share their anxieties, their struggles, their vulnerabilities, and their successes; this personal perspective makes this book a refreshing, engaging, and important intervention." - Lynn Abrams, Professor of Modern History, University of Glasgow, UK

Sherna Berger Gluck, California State University, USA Julie Cruikshank, University of British Columbia, Canada Tatiana Argounova, University of Aberdeen, UK Joan Sangster, Trent University, Canada Martha Norkunas, Middle Tennessee State University, USA Alan Wong, Concordia University, Canada Elizabeth Miller, Concordia University, Canada Pamela Sugiman, Ryerson University, Canada Monica Eileen Patterson, Concordia University, Canada Nancy Janovicek, University of Calgary, Canada Nadia Jones-Gailani, University of Toronto, Canada Alexander Freund, University of Winnipeg, Canada Luis van Isschot, City University of New York, USA Steven High, Concordia University, Canada Alessandro Portelli, University of Rome "Sapienza", Italy

Policies and ethics