Our reading groups

In addition to our once-termly research seminars (see Events page), we are pleased to offer a Reading/Discussion Group for postgraduate students and early career fellows who use (or wish to start using) oral history in their research.

We usually run two sessions per term: one joint session with Warwick's partner university, Monash, and one session with just the Warwick-based people. The sessions are friendly and informal in tone. They revolve around pre-set readings, a particular member's work-in-progress (conference papers, articles, chapters), general issues to do with experiences of using oral history, etc. The topics for discussion are chosen by the group members and reflect their diversity of interests and experiences.

Please email oralhistorynetwork@warwick.ac.uk or p.botcherby@warwick.ac.uk if you are interested and you will be added to our Teams space. Please do also get in touch with any questions.

Forthcoming Session: TBA

Please email oralhistorynetwork@warwick.ac.uk with any enquiries or suggestions for reading groups.

Previous sessions

07.10.24: Community oral history - joint session with Monash, chaired by Pierre Botcherby

• P. Botcherby, 'Coal and community: an oral history of Binley Colliery', Oral History, 52:2 (2024), 121-132.
• V. Calabria, 'Learning and doing oral history in higher education in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic', Oral History, 50:2 (2022), 107-117.

25.04.2024: Oral history and public policy - joint session with Monash

• M Hoffman (2017), Practicing Oral History to Improve Public Policies and Programs, chapters 1 and 3.

25.10.2023: Oral histories of partition - joint session with Monash, chaired by Smriti Dutt

• Anindya Raychaudhuri, 'This, too, is history', Oral History, 49:2
• Pippa Virdee, 'Remembering partition: women, oral histories, and the Partition of 1947',Oral History, 41:2

27.04.2023: Oral history and the environment - joint session with Monash, chaired by Karen Twigg and Carla Pascoe Leahy

• Meera Anna Oommen, “Famine and Elephants: Remembering Place-Making Along Travancore’s Forest Fringe.” In Telling Environmental Histories: Intersections of Memory, Narrative and Environment, edited by Katie Holmes and Heather Goodall. Cham, SWITZERLAND: Springer International Publishing AG, 2018.

• Jan Bender Shelter, "Floating Reed Islands: Gendered Stories of Resilience during Ecological Disaster in the Mara Region, Tanzania" in Oral History and the Environment: Global Perspectives on Climate, Connection and Catastrophe, eds Stephen M Sloan and Mark Cave, Oxford University Press, 2022

17.11.2022: Ethics and oral history, chaired by Sue Lemos

5.09.2022: Oral history and politics/politicians - joint session with Monash, chaired by Nicolette Snowden1

• Joshua Black, ''For the historic record': memoirs, history, and Australian political culture', Australian Journal of Politics and History, 67:2 (2021), 312-330
• Emma Peplow, Priscila Pivatto, 'Life stories from the House of Commons: the History of Parliament oral history project', Oral History, 47:2 (2019), 95-105

28.04.2022: Oral history and disability - joint session with Monash, chaired by Kirstie Stage

• Sally French & John Swain, 'Telling stories for a politics of hope', Disability & Society, 21:5 (2006), 383-396, DOI: 10.1080/09687590600785654.
• Claudia Malacrida, 'Contested memories: efforts of the powerful to silence former inmates’ histories of life in an institution for ‘mental defectives’', Disability & Society, 21:5 (2006), 397-410, DOI: 10.1080/09687590600785720

27.11.2021: Ethics and safeguarding in oral history - Warwick session

13.10.2021: Remote interviewing in oral history - Warwick session, chaired by Beckie Rutherford

12.08.2021: Ethics and safeguarding in oral history - joint session with Monash, with readings chosen by Carla Pascoe (Monash)

• Pascoe Leahy, 'The afterlife of interviews: explicit ethics and subtle ethics in sensitive or distressing qualitative research', Qualitative Research, (2021)
• Erin Jessee, 'Managing danger in oral history fieldwork', Oral History Review, 44:2 (2017), 322-347
• Emma L Vickers, 'Unexpected trauma in oral interviewing', Oral History Review, 46:1 (2019), 134-141

22.06.2021: Reflexivity in interviewing - Warwick session, topics/readings chosen by Georgia Clancy 

• Dodgson, 'Reflexivity in qualitative research', Journal of Human Lactation, 35:2 (2019), 220-222
• Code, 'Is the sex of the knower epistemologically significant?', Metaphilosophy, 12 (1981), 267-276

06.05.2021: Queer and indigenous oral history - joint-session with Monash, with readings chosen by Sue Lemos (Warwick)

• Murphy, Pierce, Ruiz, 'What makes queer oral history different', Oral History Review, 43:1 (2016), 1-24.
• Nepia Mahuika, Rethinking Oral History and Tradition: An Indigenous Perspective, (Oxford University Press, 2019) - Chapter 6, 'Indigenous oral history method and practice'.

02.03.2021: inaugural "Warwick only" session

18.02.2021: inaugural joint-session with Monash

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