Earlier this year, Professor Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla, Head of the School for Cross-faculty Studies, delivered a keynote on her research for a Midlands4Cities (M4C) workshop. The workshop was aimed at PhD students interested in oral history.

The one-day workshop, 'Creating and Working with Oral Historical Sources', was designed to improve knowledge, skills, awareness, and confidence among PhD students of the M4C cohort and academic institutions of M4C university partners in the creation and use of oral history sources. This included facilitating connection and engagement between students and oral history academics and professionals from the field.

The University of Warwick, the University of Leicester, and Nottingham Trent University were involved in the workshop. At Warwick, we offer an interdisciplinary Oral History Network, engaged in theoretical and practical issues involved in interviewing for research. The University of Leicester holds oral history expertise and has an oral history reading group comprised of academics and postgraduate students. Nottingham Trent University also has an oral history network and runs a series of seminars for academics and postgraduate researchers working with oral historical methodologies. The longer-term objective of the workshop was to forge a working connection between regional networks.

As one of the speakers for the plenary session entitled 'The Context and Boundaries of Oral History Research Projects', participants were encouraged to consider:

• What makes oral history different?
• Why create an oral historical source?
• What key considerations should be given to analysing primary and secondary oral historical sources?

Stéphanie presented her research with Cuban internationalist healthcare professionals, and shared her insights about the challenges to consider when doing oral history research with vulnerable participants.

“This workshop was a great opportunity to connect with colleagues from the M4C network and share our research on life stories and critical approaches to oral history research. The PhD students who attended and organised this exciting workshop were a pleasure to work with and many insightful conversations took place throughout the day.”

Professor Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla