oral history research paper topics

Oral History

What this handout is about.

This handout will help you figure out how to use oral histories in essays. It will give you suggestions for how to prepare for and conduct oral history interviews and help you determine, based on your context and purpose, how to integrate raw material into your essay.

Introduction

If we aren’t experts on a particular time or culture, our knowledge of it is often limited to major events and sweeping trends. This doesn’t necessarily help us understand the everyday experience of life in the past or in another culture. However, we do know a great deal about everyday experience in our own time and culture, and a large part of that knowledge comes not from textbooks but from talking to others. We learn about the histories of our families through conversation with those who remember them and about what various cultures value by observing their celebrations and listening to their music, among other things. So if you want to learn about another culture, country, era, etc., why not use a version of this strategy and talk to people who are or were part of it about their experiences and memories?

Oral history involves interviewing a person or group to get an inside perspective into what it was like to live in a particular time or is like to live as the member of a particular group within a society. Interviewing a group of people can create a picture of that experience, and a large project of this kind (such as UNC’s Southern Oral History Project) can be a way of preserving a piece of history. When we interview one person, we gain knowledge of an individual’s experiences, which may or may not be typical of their time and culture. We can also learn more about the experiences of groups from all sections of society, including the ones whose experience is not always thoroughly known or well documented, such as the working class, ethnic or religious minorities, or women.

When professors use oral history projects in classes, they usually ask you to interview only one or two people. The interview stage of the process requires effective question-making and interviewing skills. Usually, the project consists of taking raw material from an interview and shaping it into an essay. This step requires you to make some decisions about how you want to present the material and analytical skill to help you interpret what you learn.

Who uses oral history projects and why

Fields in which you might be assigned an oral history paper include history, anthropology, and other disciplines that study the experiences of specific social groups such as women or ethnic groups. The goals of these fields affect the ways they use this kind of project:

• History : Historians use evidence to understand the experiences of people in the past. Oral history can be a valuable source of evidence for understanding the experiences of individuals or groups within a certain historical period. Oral testimony cannot replace analysis of traditional historical materials (official documents, letters, newspapers, secondary sources, etc.). It can, however, reveal the role of individuals in shaping the past and/or how larger trends impacted the individual. When an oral history essay places the experiences of an individual within the context of a historical period, it can help illuminate both the individual’s experience and the historical period.
• Folklore : Folklorists study culture as it is expressed in everyday life and often use oral history projects to gather materials to preserve and study. Interviewing individuals is one of the primary means of accessing folklore; for example, folklorists use oral histories to learn about a culture’s musical traditions or festivals.
• Anthropology : An archeologist might use oral history to learn more about the lifeways of peoples who have living descendants or to locate sites for archeological excavation. A cultural anthropologist might use oral history as a way to understand how individuals think of themselves in relation to the rest of the world. This technique can help anthropologists understand how culture shapes individuals either consciously or unconsciously, on the one hand, and the ways that individuals contribute to the production of culture, on the other hand.

Fields that study marginalized social groups (such as women, African-Americans, Latino/as): In these fields, conducting and analyzing an interview is a way of uncovering experience that might be underrepresented in mainstream culture. Dominant cultures have a tendency not to notice or acknowledge the experiences of certain subgroups, viewing them as peripheral rather than central—in other words, marginalizing them. Academic fields have emerged to explore the experiences of marginalized groups, and these fields tend to value experiential knowledge. Oral history projects can be a way of accessing such knowledge.

Preparing for the interview

Before the interview, familiarize yourself with the history and characteristics of the culture your interviewee is from. That way, you’ll have a context for what you learn.

Some interviews may be fairly unstructured, with only general guidance from you. For instance, you may just choose some topics to discuss, allowing the interviewee to lead the way. This is appropriate when your goal is relatively broad, such as the preservation of the person’s voice, memories, and perspective, as opposed to using the interview to construct a focused argument. Some interviews, especially those in undergraduate course assignments, are more highly structured and take the shape of a list of questions and responses. This is especially useful when you hope to use the raw material of the interview to make a particular point or are looking to address very focused issues. If you are planning a more structured interview, prepare a list of questions, including some basic ones about aspects of the person’s identity (such as age, level of education, and occupation). In devising your questions, consider the interviewee’s cultural context. Think about what kinds of issues would be most helpful for you to learn about. For instance, learning how the person felt about major life events might help you understand how your interviewee sees their life as a whole. Questions about what it was actually like to live through segregation or the Vietnam War might give you a new perspective on a historical time period. As you ask your questions, work from your list, but be ready to ask follow-up questions in case you don’t understand the response or want to know more. A response to one of your questions may also trigger curiosity about some other issue, so it’s good to be ready to follow whatever path seems most promising. Include open-ended questions, especially “how” and “why” questions, as they will probably yield the richest raw material for your essay; asking yes/no questions is okay for gathering factual information. Ask for examples when you think it would help you (and the readers of your essay) understand the person’s perspective.

Conducting the interview

To conduct the interviewing process in an ethical way, ask the person’s permission to use their comments in your essay; written consent is ideal so you have a record of it. If you are recording a phone conversation, the interviewee’s written consent is required by law. Ask if the interviewee would prefer that you not use their actual name.

Tape record the interview if possible. If you try to work only from notes, you won’t have an exact record of the person’s comments and could end up distorting their meaning. Test your tape recorder, digital voice recorder, or videocamera ahead of time and bring extra batteries if necessary. If you’re recording, try to minimize background noise. In any interview setting, try to select an environment free from distractions, so that both you and the interviewee will be able to concentrate. Choose a spot where you will both feel comfortable. Silence will feel awkward at first, but give your interviewee a chance to think. Don’t move on too quickly just because there is a bit of a pause. Watch for signs of fatigue. If the person you’re interviewing begins to seem tired, take a break or set up another time to finish the interview. Treat the person you’re interviewing with respect, regardless of your own attitudes and opinions. Making assumptions about the person may damage trust and skew the essay you write.

Transcribing oral histories

Sometimes, you may be asked to transcribe your oral history interview or part of it. Transcription is the process of taking a sound file and translating it to text; it creates a written transcript of an oral conversation. One of the goals of transcribing interviews is to give readers a sense of the interview—how was it formatted, was it formal or informal, did the interviewer ask a lot of questions or did the interview subject do most of the talking with just a few prompts, what language and speaking style did the participants use?

A transcript of an oral history interview is, in the words of one style guide, “at best an imperfect representation of an oral interview. The transcriber’s most important task is to render as close a replica to the actual event as possible. Accuracy, not speed, is the transcriber’s goal” (Baylor Style Guide). Therefore, the transcript should reflect, as closely as possible, the words, speech patterns, and thought patterns of the interview subject. Their word choice, grammar, and ideas should be transcribed as accurately as possible. It’s not generally necessary, though, to reproduce a dialect or accent, unless you have specific training in doing so. The same style guide says, “Oral history is not an exercise in literary composition; the transcriber should avoid value judgments about the grammar or vocabulary of an interviewee.”

Transcribing can be a long and very detailed process. It will be easiest if you take detailed notes during the interview about the different questions, topics, and themes that you discuss. Write down any memorable phrases or ideas, so you have some markers for different points in the interview. You will need to listen to the entire portion of the interview to be transcribed several times. Many people find it helpful to listen all the way through a section once, then again, transcribing as much as possible, then a third (or fourth, or fifth!) time in order to fill in all the holes. At the end of this handout, you will find some websites that detail how to transcribe an oral history interview.

When you have a complete transcript, it is common practice to return it to the interviewee for editing—these changes can be noted in various ways or integrated into the document. Interviewees may need to correct things like dates, names, or places. Or they may want to provide more elaboration or clarification on a subject. Though this is standard practice for professional historians, your instructor may or may not expect you to do this.

Turning the raw material into an essay

The process you use will depend on what you want your essay to do. If, for instance, you want your essay merely to showcase an individual’s thoughts on a time or subject, you will simply need to frame the comments of the interviewee and shape them into a narrative. If, on the other hand, your intention is to interpret the interviewee’s comments, using them as evidence for an argument, you will need to make a strong argument while still letting the interviewee’s experience and insights come through. Your essay might use the interviewee’s comments to advance an alternate interpretation of a historical time or culture, confirm a commonly held characterization, or enrich an existing view.

Because oral history papers can vary a great deal according to their aims, make sure to develop a clear sense of your purpose. The assignment itself may specify quite clearly what kind of an oral history project you may do or leave many of the choices up to you. In either case, figuring out what you want your essay to accomplish will help you make definitive decisions about how to write it.

Decisions you’ll need to make about your project

First, determine the overall purpose of your essay. What would you like your essay to do?

A . Transcribe the comments of the individual.

B . Present the experiences and/or perspective of the individual.

C . Place the individual’s experiences and/or perspective within a larger historical or social context.

D . Use the individual’s experiences and/or perspective to make an argument about a larger historical or social context.

(C and D are especially common in undergraduate assignments of this type, but every assignment is different.)

Based on your answer to the above question, choose which section of this handout you’d like to read. If you’re not certain what you’d like your essay to do, read through all of the following sections to get a better sense of what your essay might include.

If you answered A., that you want your essay to transcribe the comments of the individual, consider the following questions and responses

What should you say about the interviewee’s comments?

Introduce the individual, explain the circumstances of the interview, and then literally transcribe your questions and their responses.

How should you structure your essay?

Present the questions and responses in the order you asked the questions. You may also include an introduction that briefly describes the person.

How should you present quotes and use paraphrases?

Transcribe the questions and responses so that paraphrases won’t be necessary. A question and answer format is a clear way to present a transcription (see the “examples” section at the end of this handout).

Should you read and/or incorporate secondary sources?

Whether or not you need to use secondary sources is partially a matter of what the assignment calls for. Secondary sources about the cultural context might help you think of your questions, but you won’t need to include them in your transcription of the responses.

Here is an example of how you might handle one of your interviewee’s comments within the body of the essay. Suppose that your paper is for a women’s studies project in which your instructor has asked you to interview a female family member; you have chosen to interview your grandmother, Lucretia. Suppose that you asked the following question: “How free did you feel in terms of choosing your jobs? If you felt limited, why do you think that might have been?”

If you want your essay to transcribe the interview, you will just present the questions and answers:

[Your name]: How free did you feel in terms of choosing your jobs? If you felt limited, why do you think that might have been? Lucretia: I have always been good at organizing things and getting along with people, so that made it easy for me to find receptionist jobs. But in those times, you didn’t see women executives. That was just how things were; people simply didn’t consider women for those jobs.

If you answered B., that you want your essay to present the experiences and/or perspective of the individual, consider the following questions and responses

Introduce the individual and outline the topics that the interview explored. Then use these topics to help you decide whether you want to organize the essay by the sequence of your questions or by topics that emerged as you reviewed your notes. You may frame the interviewee’s comments by providing transitions and a conclusion that reiterates the central point(s) that the interview revealed.

Your introduction should say a few things about who the person is and name some of the recurring themes or issues to prepare the reader to notice those in the body of the essay. The body of the essay should organize the interviewee’s comments, for instance chronologically or topically, and provide bridges (transitions) between sections.

Frame your quotes will phrases like “Sue Ellen explained . . .” or “Horatio’s view on plum trees is that . . .”; if you use paraphrases, be careful not to change their implications or lose their intent, since your goal is to present rather than interpret. For this approach as well as the next, our handout on quotations might be helpful.

If your assignment asks you to present (“B”) the results in essay form, you will integrate the questions and answers into your text, although sometimes you may find it easier to just paraphrase the question:

While Lucretia does feel that her occupational life offered her some opportunities, she describes feeling a sense of limitation, at least in retrospect: “I have always been good at organizing things and getting along with people, so that made it easy for me to find receptionist jobs. But in those times, you didn’t see women executives. That was just how things were; people simply didn’t consider women for those jobs.”

If you answered C., that you want your essay to place the individual’s experiences and/or perspective within a larger historical or social context, consider the following questions and responses

Analyze the responses to your questions and what they illustrate about their historical or social context. You might consider how your interviewee’s identity (their class, gender, and ethnicity, for instance) relates to the nature of the interviewee’s experience or perspective. For this kind of essay, you’ll need an analytical thesis statement (see our handout on thesis statements ), a plan for how to organize the subtopics that demonstrate your thesis, analysis/interpretation of the interviewee’s comments, and a conclusion that draws your analysis together.

Your introduction should contain and explain a thesis statement that makes a claim about the nature of the historical or social context. Organizing the body paragraphs by topic may be an effective way of explaining how the individual’s experiences fit into the broader historical or social context.

You’ll provide framing phrases as in the previous case, but you’ll also need to include your explanation of the significance of the quotes. A good general guideline is to include at least as much explanation of the quote as the quote is long. Paraphrases are helpful when you need just the content of the comment to make your point—that is, when the language the interviewee uses is not the primary issue. If you’re writing an analytical or argumentative essay, a mixture of paraphrases and quotes will probably serve your purpose best.

Whether or not you need to use secondary sources is partially a matter of what the assignment calls for. But if the assignment doesn’t specify, you’ll probably need to read and perhaps refer explicitly to some secondary sources so that you will have the necessary evidence to create a picture of the broader historical or social context.

If your assignment asks you to place the responses in their social context, you will need to integrate the quotes into text, paired with either the questions themselves or paraphrases, along with some analysis of how the individual’s experiences fit into their social context. You may even include some references to secondary sources, depending on the assignment and your own sense of whether they would strengthen your analysis:

Lucretia describes feeling limited in terms of her occupational life: “I have always been good at organizing things and getting along with people, so that made it easy for me to find receptionist jobs. But in those times, you didn’t see women executives. That was just how things were; people simply didn’t consider women for those jobs.” Her account reveals a sense of how fixed gender roles were in the workplace and seems fairly typical for the time and place, as feminist historian Tammy Ixplox’s scholarship suggests (Ixplox 39).

If you answered D., that you want your essay to use the individual’s experiences and/or perspective to make an argument about a larger historical or social context, consider the following questions and responses

Use the interviewee’s comments as evidence for an argument you want to make about a particular historical or social context. For instance, you might want to argue that working-class women’s experience in 1950s America does not necessarily fit with popularly-held notions of the fifties housewife. Or you might want to show how racism affected one African-American man’s everyday life to demonstrate how insidious racism can be. For these kinds of essays, you may need some supporting research to get a better sense of the historical and social context, so you’ll understand how the individual’s experience relates to broader cultural trends and phenomena. In terms of what the essay will look like, you’ll need a thesis that makes a claim, an organizational plan that reflects the main points you think will best support that thesis, lots of explanation of how the interviewee’s comments illustrate the thesis, and a conclusion that draws your argument together.

You’ll need an introduction with a strong, interpretive thesis statement that the body of the essay explains and demonstrates. The interviewee’s comments will function as evidence for your argument, so each body paragraph should correspond to a point in your argument.

You’ll provide framing phrases as in the previous case, but you’ll also need to include your explanation of the significance of the quotes. A good rule of thumb is to include at least as much explanation of the quote as the quote is long. Paraphrases are helpful when you need just the content of the comment to make your point—that is, when the language the interviewee uses is not the primary issue. If you’re writing an analytical or argumentative essay, a mixture of paraphrases and quotes will probably serve your purpose best.

Whether or not you need to use secondary sources is partially a matter of what the assignment calls for. But if the assignment doesn’t specify, you’ll probably need to read and incorporate some secondary sources to complement or provide a counterpoint to the interviewee’s comments and to support your claims about the larger historical or social context.

If your assignment asks you to make an argument, for example, about how the interviewee’s responses reflect gender issues and roles, you will need to integrate the quotes into your text as evidence for your argument about gender roles, perhaps with reference to secondary sources if appropriate:

Lucretia’s experiences reveal gender roles in the workplace, in which men tended to fill the executive positions and women the less prestigious ones. She describes feeling limited in terms of her occupational life: “I have always been good at organizing things and getting along with people, so that made it easy for me to find receptionist jobs. But in those times, you didn’t see women executives. That was just how things were; people simply didn’t consider women for those jobs.” In her experience, no one questioned these roles, which reveals how ingrained and even internalized social expectations for men and women were at the time. This phenomenon is consistent with feminist historian Tammy Ixplox’s scholarship on this cultural context (Ixplox 39).

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Baylor University. n.d. “Transcribing Style Guide.” Institute for Oral History. Accessed June 24, 2019. https://www.baylor.edu/oralhistory/index.php?id=931752 .

Library of Congress. n.d. “Indexing and Transcribing Your Interviews.” Veterans History Project. Last updated August 2020. http://www.loc.gov/vets/transcribe.html .

Moyer, Judith. 1993. “Step-by-Step Guide to Oral History.” DoHistory . Harvard University. http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html .

Shopes, Linda. 2002. “Making Sense of Oral History.” History Matters: The US Survey Course on the Web. February 2002. http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/ .

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Oral History Collections at Harvard

Oral history collections beyond harvard, harvard library research guides for oral history, selected resources to make your own oral histories, handbooks and guides to oral history methodology, scholarship & commentary on oral history methodology, participative resources and projects for oral history.

• Data Management & Repositories
• Campus Access

On this page, you will find:

• Selected Oral History Collections at Harvard and Beyond Harvard
• Scholarship and Commentary on Oral History Methodology

Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System Digital Collection: Interviews and Manuals, 1950-1953 (inclusive) Named the Harvard Project on the Soviet Social System (also known as the Harvard Refugee Interview Project), this was a large scale, unclassified project, based largely on interviews with Soviet émigrés in West Germany, Austria, and the United States, aimed at gaining new insights into strategic psychological and sociological aspects of the Soviet social system. 

Oral Histories at Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America Get started with archival research on women's oral histories with this guide.

Woodberry Poetry Room Oral History Initiative Check out video recordings on YouTube of this 2021 series of oral histories on   pioneering Boston women poets. Tip: Look for  "ORAL HISTORY INITIATIVE" in the title.  

Find More at Harvard

You may search for interviews and oral histories (whether in textual or audiovisual formats) held in archival collections at Harvard Library. HOLLIS searches all documented collections at Harvard, whereas HOLLIS for Archival Discovery searches only those with finding aids. Although HOLLIS for Archival Discovery covers less material, you may find it easier to parse your search results, especially when you wish to view results at the item level (within collections). Try these approaches:

Search in HOLLIS:  

• To retrieve items available online, do an Advanced Search for interview* OR "oral histor*" (in Subject), with Resource Type "Archives/Manuscripts," then refine your search by selecting "Online" under "Show Only" on the right of your initial result list.  Revise the search above by adding your topic in the Keywords or Subject field (for example: African Americans ) and resubmitting the search.  
•  To enlarge your results set, you may also leave out the "Online" refinement; if you'd like to limit your search to a specific repository, try the technique of searching for Code: Library + Collection on the "Advanced Search" page .  

Search in HOLLIS for Archival Discovery:  

• To retrieve items available online, search for  interview* OR "oral histor*" limited to digital materials . Revise the search above by adding your topic (for example:  artist* ) in the second search box (if you don't see the box, click +).  
• To preview results by collection, search for interview* OR "oral histor*" limited to collections .  Revise the search above by adding your topic (for example:  artist* ) in the second search box (if you don't see the box, click +). Although this method does not allow you to isolate digitized content, you may find the refinement options on the right side of the screen (refine by repository, subject or names) helpful. Once your select a given collection, you may search within it (e.g., for your topic or the term interview).

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) To find oral histories among the millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the United States, search for "oral history," and then use the subject and other refinements to discover oral histories of interest to you.

The HistoryMakers Contains interviews African Americans who have made a significant contribution in area of American life or culture, or who has been associated with a particular movement or organization that is important in the African American community. Disciplines include Art, Business, Civics, Education, Entertainment, Law, Media, Medicine, Military, Music, Politics, Religion, Science, Sports and Style. Harvard constituents have full access to this database when connecting via Harvard.

Library of Congress Digital Collections The Library of Congress provides several oral history collections online. To locate them, search the Digital Collections site for "oral history".

Oral History Centers and Collections Curated by members of the H-OralHist Network.

Oral History Online An index to worldwide oral history collections, with links to interview-level bibliographic records in English and to full-text materials, audio files and visual files where these are available. 

Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Collections More than 80,000 historical and contemporary items from the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage's Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections are available in the Smithsonian’s Collections Search Center . Find complete collection descriptions in finding aids and inventories in the Smithsonian Online Virtual Archive , which often include digital surrogates.

South Asian Oral History Project The SAOHP has been conducted in four phases. Each phase is marked by key historical events that drew South Asians to the United States: 1) 1950s Immigrants, 2) 1960s and 1970s Immigrants, 3) 1980s Immigrants, 4) South Asian classical performing artists (vocalists, instrumentalists and dancers) in the Pacific Northwest. The transcriptions and audio recordings from phase one and the transcription and audio/video recordings from phase two through four are available digitally.

1947 Partition Archive The 1947 Partition Archive, "The Archive" has been preserving oral histories of Partition witnesses since 2010 through a combined program that includes an innovative technique for crowdsourcing by Citizen Historians, as well as collection by trained scholars. Nearly 10,000 oral histories have been preserved on digital video, making The Archive the largest documentation effort focused on Partition.  Oral histories have been recorded from 500+ cities in 15 countries across the world. See  information about accessing the archive materials .

Statue of Liberty Oral History Project: A Record of Living Memory One of the world’s largest and most diverse chronicles of the American immigrant experience, this resource includes interviews from passengers, families, immigration officials, military personnel, detainees, and former Ellis Island employees. It is available to researchers, students, educators, and the general public.

The Tretter Transgender Oral History Project A growing collection of oral histories of gender transgression, broadly understood through a trans framework.

Visual History Archive (VHA), USC Shoah Foundation Created by the Shoah Foundation, this fully indexed and searchable digital repository contains the visual testimony of approximately 55,000 survivors of genocidal wars. The majority of the testimonies are from Holocaust survivors (1939-1945) but the archive also includes survivor testimony from the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda (1994), the Armenian Genocide (1915-23) the Cambodian Genocide, the Guatemalan Genocide (1978-96) and the Nanjing Massacre (1937), among others. For more information about the testimonies, visit the VHA guide . Harvard constituents have full access to this repository when connecting via Harvard.

Ways of Knowing Oral History Collection This project documents the stories of individuals who have developed and implemented alternative library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies. These projects describe how institutional descriptive practices facilitate some ways of knowing and not others and demonstrate that such practices can change.

Oral History and Interviews, Harvard Library Research Guide for History Compiled by Harvard Librarians, this guide offers strategies for locating oral history interviews, as well as a list of relevant databases and collections.

Freshman Seminar 64 E Asian American Literature The "Oral History" section of this guide lists several oral history resources  relevant to researching the Asian American experience in the 1960s.

ArcGIS StoryMaps An engaging platform for presenting your oral histories.

See the "Conducting Interviews" and "Transcription & Coding" tabs of the Interview Skills page of this guide . There, you will find technical tools, tips, and assistance available at Harvard. Please note that these resources have been selected for a wide range of interviewing methodologies; thus, some may not apply to the oral history genre.

Beyond Harvard

The Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University You will find here innovative approaches to oral history, some of which utilize various art forms.

Columbia Center for Oral History Research: Resources A helpful selection of resources for conducting oral history research.

Oral History guide from Coates Library, Trinity University Useful tips and resources compiled by Abna Schnur.

Oral History Metadata Synchronizer (OHMS) Created by the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky, this tool allows producers of oral history to inexpensively and efficiently enhance access to oral history online. Because OHMS provides word-level search capability and a time-correlated transcript or indexed interview, the audience is connected from a search result to the corresponding moment in a recorded interview. 

American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Oral History Interviews Recommendations for planning an oral history project and tips for conducting interviews

American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. Folklife and Fieldwork: A Layman’s Introduction to Field Techniques Although folklorists tend to be more interested in documenting ways of living than history, per se, many of their methods are similar. This guide includes helpful advice for conducting fieldwork in folklore, including tips for planning, conducting, recording, and archiving interviews.

Indigenous Studies: Oral History Provides helpful information and resources to inform respectful understanding and citation of Indigenous oral histories.

Oral History Association: Principles and Best Practices An invaluable document for maintaining an ethical stance as a researcher, with guidance on archiving interviews and managing rights/copyright.

Oral History Methodology (Hajek A., 2014) The case study starts with a historical outline of the advent of oral history research in Western society, its strengths and its weaknesses, before it moves to a practical exploration of oral history methodology. It explains how to set up an oral history project, how to conduct interviews and what legal concerns to keep in mind. It also provides details on recording equipment and discusses a number of potential outputs of oral history data.

The Oral History Reader (edited by Perks, R. and Thomson, A., 2015)   A comprehensive, international anthology combining major classic articles with cutting-edge pieces on the theory, method and use of oral history.

Webinar: Introduction to Oral History and Interviewing , Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Concordia University

Belfast to Boston: Oral History Goes Awry WNYC Studios' "The Takeaway" speaks with Boston Globe columnist, Kevin Cullen, about how Boston College's well meaning attempt to promote truth and reconciliation around the Troubles backfired on the ground in Belfast.

Blee, K. (1993). Evidence, Empathy, and Ethics: Lessons from Oral Histories of the Klan. The Journal of American History, 80(2), 596-606. doi:10.2307/2079873 Critically examines issues that arise in oral history methodology around the life stories of ordinary people whose political agendas are unsavory, dangerous, or deliberately deceptive.

Davis, M., & Kennedy, E. (1986). Oral History and the Study of Sexuality in the Lesbian Community: Buffalo, New York, 1940-1960.  Feminist Studies,   12 (1), 7-26. doi:10.2307/3177981 This article explores the role of sexuality in the cultural and political development of the Buffalo lesbian community.

Portelli, Alessandro. (2010). The death of Luigi Trastulli. Memory and event - memory and fact. Anuarul Institutului De Istorie Orală : AIO, 12, 245-274. Luigi Trastulli, a young steel worker in Terni, Italy, died in an altercation with police in 1949, when workers left the factory to protest against a North-Atlantic Treaty signed by the Italian Government. The strike, confrontation and assassination greatly impacted the identity and culture of Terni. This essay discusses how the event has been portrayed and interpreted over the years in both official and oral sources. The essay linked above is in Italian. For an English language translation, see The Death of Luigi Trastulli, and Other Stories.

Portelli, Alessandro (2016). What makes oral history different. In Perks, Robert and Alistair Thomson, The Oral History Reader, Routledge, p. 68-78. Publisher abstract: "There seems to be a fear that once the floodgates of orality are opened, writing (and rationality along with it) will be swept out as if by a spontaneous uncontrollable mass of fluid, amorphous material. But this attitude blinds us to the fact that our awe of writing has distorted our perception of language and communication to the point where we no longer understand either orality or the nature of writing itself. As a matter of fact, written and oral sources are not mutually exclusive. They have common as well as autonomous characteristics, and specific functions which only either one can fill (or which one set of sources fills better than the other). Therefore, they require different specific interpretative instruments. But the undervaluing and the overvaluing of oral sources end up by cancelling out specific qualities, turning these sources either into mere supports for traditional written sources, or into an illusory cure for all ills. This chapter will attempt to suggest some of the ways in which oral history is intrinsically different, and therefore specifically useful."

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Oral History Research and Resources

• About Oral History
• Selected Digital Oral History Collections
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What is Oral History?

Oral history is a method of conducting historical research through recorded interviews between a narrator with personal experience of historically significant events and a well-informed interviewer, with the goal of adding to the historical record. Because it is a primary source, an oral history is not intended to present a final, verified, or "objective" narrative of events, or a comprehensive history of a place, such as the UCSC campus. It is a spoken account, reflects personal opinion offered by the narrator, and as such it is subjective. Oral histories may be used together with other primary sources as well as secondary sources to gain understanding and insight into history.

Principles and Best Practices

• Principles and Best Practices for Oral History The Oral History Association encourages individuals and institutions involved with the creation and preservation of oral histories to uphold certain principles, professional and technical standards, and obligations.
• Oral History in the Digital Age Oral History in the Digital Age is the go-to place for the latest information on digital technologies pertaining to all phases of the oral history process. This resource is a product of an Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership project and a collaboration among the Michigan State University Digital Humanities Center, Matrix; the American Folklife Center (AFC/LOC), the Library of Congress; the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (CFCH); the American Folklore Society (AFS); the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries; and the Oral History Association.

Organizations

• Oral History Association The Oral History Association, established in 1966, seeks to bring together all persons interested in oral history as a way of collecting and interpreting human memories to foster knowledge and human dignity. With an international membership, the OHA serves a broad and diverse audience. Local historians, librarians and archivists, students, journalists, teachers, and academic scholars from many fields have found that the OHA provides both professional guidance and a collegial environment for sharing research.
• International Oral History Association A professional association established to provide a forum for oral historians around the world, and a means for cooperation among those concerned with the documentation of human experience. IOHA seeks to stimulate research that uses the techniques of oral history and to promote the development of standards and principles for individuals, institutions and agencies (both public and private) who have the responsibility for the collection and preservation of historical information gathered through the techniques of oral histories, in all forms. Through international conferences, collaborative networks, and support for national oral history organizations, IOHA seeks to foster a better understanding of the democratic nature and value of oral history worldwide.
• Oral History Listserv: H-Oralhist H-Oralhist is a network for scholars and professionals active in studies related to oral history. It is affiliated with the Oral History Association.
• Groundswell: Oral History for Social Change An emerging and dynamic network of oral historians, activists, cultural workers, community organizers, and documentary artists.
• Oral History Review The Oral History Review, published by the Oral History Association, is the U.S. journal of record for the theory and practice of oral history. Its primary mission is to explore the nature and significance of oral history and advance understanding of the field among scholars, educators, practitioners, and the general public.
• Words and Silences Words and Silences is the official on-line journal of the International Oral History Association. It is an internationally peer reviewed, high quality forum for oral historians from a wide range of disciplines and a means for the professional community to share projects and current trends of oral history from around the world.

Oral History Research Guide

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1. Getting Started

In this module you will learn what is and what isn't an oral history.

• What is oral history?
• Historical background
• Why do oral history?
• Oral history vs. interview
• Community-centered archives approach to oral history

• Getting Started
• Designing your oral history
• Preparing to Interview and Checklists
• Interview Day
• After your interview
• Care for your oral history project

The Oral History Association provides the following definition:

Oral history is a field of study and a method of gathering, preserving and interpreting the voices and memories of people, communities, and participants in past events.

Oral history is both the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21st-century digital technologies.

Listening to and capturing the life stories of an individual is an opportunity, a privilege, and perhaps even challenge. Oral history creates an opportunity for individuals to pass on their knowledge, experiences, and memories in their own words. This transmission of cultural memory can be an empowering tool for the narrator sharing their stories, the listener/interviewer who is privy to this firsthand account, and the researchers who use the oral history to learn about the past. Oral histories can accomplish the following:  

• Enrich and diversify the historical record
• Account for fuller, more comprehensive perspectives than interviews
• Empowers the narrator to tell their story and experiences
• Capture multiplicity of experiences and viewpoints in history 

It is helpful to understand the differences between an oral history project and an interview project by defining their intended uses. An interview seeks to gain information, very directly, about a specific event, time, experience. They are often short and focused, driven by the interviewer’s topic. Oral histories are often defined by the intention of creating primary source materials that should be preserved and made available for a wider audience.

Oral history has existed for much longer than the professionalized form it has taken since the 1940s in the United States. Oral traditions and storytelling practices are part of the traditions of cultures around the world. The modern approach, however, rests on the work of (1) recording, (2) preserving, and (3) making available these life stories. These three aspects are crucial to the way that knowledge about underrepresented communities can be created and circulated. In its intention to address the gap in historical knowledge, oral history methods have the potential to enhance our work in building more inclusive archival collections. UCI Special Collections and Archives are committed to partnering with communities whose histories are underrepresented in archival institutions. Our principles for community-centered archives involves being:

• Attentive to inequities reflected in archives: An institution should seek to understand how communities have been misrepresented, absent, or maligned in historical documentation.
• Responsive to the community’s needs: An institution must be flexible, adaptable, and take an iterative and ethical approach to responding to how community memory and evidence is preserved, described, and made accessible. This means being willing to bend and stretch how archival work is defined to reflect what matters to the community.
• Collaborative through shared authority: In a community-centered approach, the institution focuses on shared authority, making decisions together and respecting the value, expertise, and perspective brought to the partnership by the community.
• Cognizant of the divergent priorities of communities: Community-institution partnerships must vary depending on the needs of each community, from the level of involvement by specific contributors to decisions about what archival material to collect.

Our “community-centered archives” approach can be explored further here .

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12 Oral History and the Historical Process

There is an African proverb which goes something like this: “When an old person dies a library burns to the ground.” This proverb perhaps best reflects why the use of oral history has become so important to researchers around the world. Historical researchers over the past several decades have come to realize that everyone (let’s say this again, EVERYONE!) has a story to tell and memories to preserve—memories, like library collections and archival holdings, that help us study and understand the past and will disappear, like materials in a burning library, when an individual dies if they are not saved. The preservation of these memories and people’s life stories is called oral history.

This chapter discusses what oral history is, why we conduct oral history interviews, how oral history methods have evolved, what encompasses the oral history process, how one goes about interviewing people for historical information, and how to evaluate oral interviews and integrate them into your research. There will also be some exercises at the end of the chapter to make you a better oral historian and some useful oral history links and bibliographies for further exploration of the topic.

But first things first…

What Is Oral History?

Oral history can be defined in three different ways. First, the term oral history can refer to a body of information that each person has locked in his or her memory. One’s memory essentially represents some of a person’s life experiences (no one remembers everything) that he/she has lived through and can recall. This is the type of information that the African proverb is referring to and will disappear upon someone’s death.

The second definition sees oral history as a body of literature based on first-person accounts created using an interview process. These oral accounts may be published in either popular and/or scholarly books and articles; be integrated into museum exhibits, TV scripts and programs, or other forms of media; or that exist as archival material in archives, libraries, and other cultural institutions.

The third definition, and the one this chapter will focus on, defines oral history as a method of collecting historical information from individuals who have firsthand knowledge of the subject one is researching. As a method, oral history uses the interview and the familiar Q&A format as a way to preserve historical content.

Oral historians like to say that the oral history method must include four different ingredients to be considered oral history. These  are:

• Interviewee. The individual being interviewed for historical purposes is called the interviewee (The person can also be referred to as the subject, narrator, or memoirist.). The interviewee is carefully selected because he/she is an eye-witness to, or a participant in, whatever subject the interviewer is studying.
• Interviewer. The person conducting the interview is called the interviewer. This is the person (probably you as a researcher) asking questions and guiding the interview. This is exciting work, but make sure you are prepared for each interview. Follow the interview guidelines later in the chapter to give yourself the best chance for success.
• Recording Device . To capture the audio of an interview, the interviewer records it using a digital recorder or even a phone with recording capabilities. Recording the interview gives the oral historian options for how best to preserve and later use the interview. For example, the interview can be transcribed, or donated to a library for preservation, or the audio can be indexed for immediate use with the option of transcribing the interview in total at a later date.
• Q&A Interview . We are all familiar with the Q&A format because we are used to seeing people interviewed on TV, in social media, and in other venues. Also, many of us have participated in interviews ourselves, especially when we have applied for jobs. But just because a source is oral doesn’t make it oral history. It is important to emphasize that oral history isn’t the recording of speeches and songs, or the recording of a monologue, or the secret recording of conversations between unsuspecting people. Rather, to be considered oral history, both people are knowingly participating in the Q&A process and speaking for the historical record.

Why Do We Do Oral History?

There are a number of compelling reasons to do oral history interviews to aid in your research, but they all boil down to two basic ones. First, oral interviews can be used to fill in the gaps in the documentary research you are conducting. Let’s face it, books, articles, records, and documents don’t always answer every question a researcher may have. So if you are conducting research on a contemporary topic (let’s say an event, person, subject, etc., that happened in the last 50-75 years) and there are still people alive who were participants or eye-witnesses, then you may want to conduct interviews aimed at helping answer questions that written records are silent about or they don’t give you the complete story. One of the strengths of oral history is that it is one of only a few sources where the researcher has a hand in creating it. This means you as a researcher can ask whatever questions you want to help fill the information gaps. In short, used this way, oral history can be targeted to supplement written records.

The “father” of modern oral history in the U.S., Dr. Allan Nevins, a historian at Columbia University in the mid-twentieth century, used oral history in just this way. He essentially “debriefed” interviewees that he had selected so that their testimonies could fill in the gaps in written records. He also used early tape-recorders to capture their voices, had their interviews transcribed, and he placed the transcripts and later the audio recordings in an archives where they could be used by other researchers. As a result of his efforts, the first institutional oral history project in the U.S. was created at Columbia University in New York City in 1948. The project is still going strong today.

Another reason to use oral history–and maybe even a more exciting one–is to use oral history interviews when there are no written records. Archives, libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions are filled with records and sources that document the elites of the world, such as politicians, successful businessmen, celebrities, leaders, etc. But the majority of people are either undocumented or under-documented, and oral history can be an effective way to capture their stories so they can be added to the historical narrative.

This is the reason why one of the earliest oral history/interview projects in the U.S. in the 20th century focused on interviewing former Southern slaves during 1936-1938. This project was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal designed to put people back to work during the Great Depression. Government-sponsored interviewers fanned out across some of the Southern states to interview former slaves before all of them had passed away (keep in mind this was some seventy years after the end of the Civil War). Called the Slave Narrative Project, more than 2,300 interviews were conducted and transcribed, making it the largest single body of primary sources about slavery where the slaves spoke for themselves about their experiences in bondage. All of the interviews have been preserved by the Library of Congress and are available to researchers in a digital archive.

Another good example of oral history being used to collect the experiences, memories, and observations of mostly undocumented people is the USC Shoah Foundation’s interviews with Holocaust survivors. Famous Hollywood director Steven Speilberg started the project in the 1990s and, over a five year period, volunteers and others collected video oral histories from more than 50,000 individuals from around the world. In addition to documenting the experiences of Jewish survivors, the foundation also interviewed homosexual survivors, Jehovah’s Witness survivors, liberators and liberation witnesses, political prisoners, rescuers and aid providers, Roma and Sinti (Gypsy) survivors, survivors of Eugenics policies, and war crimes trials participants. USC has provided a way for individuals to gain free access to a “small” set of the interviews (more than 3,000) in the archives . The Shoah Project and the Slave Narrative Project represent oral history at its best.

The Oral History Process

Before we cover interview techniques and guidelines in the next section, let’s discuss the oral history process, or the steps to go through when you decide to conduct interviews. The steps are:

• Select your research topic . This is a critical first step and the key to deciding if oral history can be a part of the research process. Keep in mind that oral history aims to interview eye-witnesses to, or participants in, whatever subject you are studying. So if your subject is more than 50-75 years old then there is little chance of using oral history because there will probably not be any potential interviewees still alive. If, however, your topic is recent and there are possible interviewees available, then go to the next step.
• Conduct preliminary research about your topic. Begin to learn more about your topic. Take a look at what has been written by conducting a literature review. Start compiling names and contact information for potential interviewees and record how these individuals relate to your research subject.
• Contact potential interviewees . Prioritize the interviewee list you have compiled, contacting the most important individual or individuals on the list to request an interview. Be sure to explain what oral history is, why you want to interview them, what you plan to do with the information they will give you, and any other pertinent information about your research project. Schedule an interview for a time and place convenient for you and the interviewee. A quiet place is best—a location free from any distractions. [On a side note, consider yourself lucky because beginning in 2018, the federal government exempted oral historians and journalists from going through university Institutional Research Boards’ (IRBs) approval process for conducting “human subject research.” In the past, anyone wanting to use individuals in their research had to go through a fairly long, complicated vetting process seeking approval from a local IRB before they could begin. This vetting process was designed to protect human subjects, especially during medical and other scientific research. Historical research using human subjects is fundamentally different from medical testing, so the federal government has now exempted oral history from IRB vetting.]
• Conduct research on the interviewee and compile an interview outline . The key to a good oral history interview is background research. Before any interview, it is important to conduct as much research as possible so that you know something about the interviewee’s life and how he/she relates to your subject. Once you have completed the research, then create an interview outline, placing the most important subjects that you want to ask about first and so on. Some students may prefer to write a list of questions, but, in any case, think about the order of the questions/subjects and how you would like the interview to unfold. It may not unfold the way you think it will, but it is important to think about the interview as a whole before you talk to the interviewee.
• Practice with the recorder . Before meeting with the interviewee, make sure you know how to operate the recorder. In fact, by the time of the interview, the recorder’s operation should be second nature to you. Getting into an interview and fumbling around trying to figure out how to start, pause, stop, reverse, set recording levels, etc., is a no-no!
• Record an introduction before each interview . Each recorded interview should be preceded by an introduction giving some basic information about the interview and the participants. Something along this line will work: “This is (your name) interviewing (interviewee’s name) for a research project focusing on (the subject of your research). Today’s date is (give date here) and I am at (location of the interview). I am here to talk with (name of the interviewee/Mr. or Ms. So-in-so) about his/her involvement with (your subject). Hello Mr./Ms, (last name). Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed today. Begin your first question.”
• Conduct the interview. See the next section “Interviewing Basics.”
• Get an interview agreement signed . Before any interview, prepare an interview agreement form for your interviewee to sign, The reason for an agreement form is that the interview is protected by U.S. copyright law as soon as it has been completed and is fixed in a “tangible form.” This fixed form can be a digital audio file (recording), or a transcript, or both. This means the interviewee owns his/her words and should formally transfer the copyright of these words to you so that you can quote directly from the interview should you choose. This is especially important if you are planning to “publish” any of your research at a later date. Publishing in this context can be anything from quoting in social media to producing a scholarly product like a book, article, or exhibit text (the Oral History Association has a brief explanation of copyright law ). SAADA has a sample interview release form to use.
• Send a thank you . After the interview, be sure to send a thank you to the interviewee for participating in your research project. Maintaining contact with the interviewee may also help you in the future should you run into problems interpreting or using the information in the interview. You might need help in clarifying a concept, or figuring out a name, or spelling a word you are unfamiliar with.
• Transcribe the interview (optional) . You may want to transcribe the interview to make it easier to use. If you do, then make sure you adhere to a set of common guidelines for the transcribing process. Baylor University’s Center for Oral History has placed its guidelines online. They are some of the most comprehensive available and have evolved over the past fifty years. They are also easy to follow. If you are conducting oral history interviews for the Texas Disability History Collection housed in Special Collections of the UT Arlington Libraries, then use the guidelines that Dr. Sarah Rose Director of UT Arlington’s Disabilities Studies Minor, has compiled (see Dr. Rose for these guidelines).
• Evaluate and use the interview. See the section below titled “Evaluating Oral History Content.”

Interviewing Basics

Before you sit down to conduct an interview, decide what kind of interview you are planning to do. Basically, there are two types of oral history interviews. The first is a biographical interview. These interviews focus on an interviewee’s entire life, and usually take a great deal of time to do properly. In biographical interviews, the interviewer covers all of the major parts of an interviewee’s life, including his/her childhood, education, growing up, career, family life, etc. Not surprisingly, such interviews often take several sessions to complete.

The second type of interview is the topical interview. This interview focuses on how the interviewee’s life intersects with your research topic. Most students who are using oral history for a research paper will be conducting topical interviews. While you do want to record some basic biographical information about each interviewee even in topical interviews, the main focus should be to ask questions that reveal how the interviewee has impacted your topic or witnessed something about your subject. In this way, you are creating another primary source to analyze and use when writing your research paper.

Regardless of the type of interview you plan to conduct, students should understand that interviews are a two-way process. Some call this a “transactional process,” where the interviewee is giving information (by answering questions), but so is the interviewer. Not surprisingly, the interviewer’s gender, race, language, clothing, age, appearance, and other factors telegraph certain pieces of information to the interviewee, and this information can shape what the interviewee remembers or is willing to discuss. For example, some interviewee’s may be willing to tell a female interviewer something that they would never tell a male interviewer, and, of course, vice versa. While there is not much one can do about this, just be aware of the signals you may be sending to the interviewee and try to make your questions professional, neutral, and free from bias of any kind. Also, keep your language appropriate to the educational level of your interviewee and as free of jargon as possible.

Oral historians have often wished that interviewing techniques could be distilled down to a few basic guidelines that would guarantee usable interviews, but, alas, no such magic guidelines exist. Interviews can vary wildly in terms of quality, even when interviewing the same interviewee over multiple sessions! After all, people are people—we have good days and bad days, and this can be reflected in what and how we remember.

What follows, however, are some interview guidelines that, if followed, will give you, as the interviewer, the best chance for success.

Research, research, research. As mentioned above, good background research is one of the keys to a good interview. Follow the paper and digital trail about your interviewee and the topic you will be asking about. Know where the gaps exist in the written records and try to fill these gaps at the very least. If there are no written records—or precious few—then follow the journalistic method by asking when, who, what, where, and how questions about your topic. Never—NEVER—go into an interview cold having done no research!

Establish a relaxed atmosphere . As stated above, pick a location for the interview that is quiet, free from distractions, and convenient. If possible, there should only be the two of you (interviewee and interviewer) participating in the interview.

Build and maintain rapport . Trust is an important part of the interview process. The interviewee will reveal more information if he/she trusts you as an interviewer. If the interviewee wants to avoid certain topics, then abide by their wishes. If they tell you something is “off the record,” then make sure it is kept “off the record.” Always keep in mind that the interview is the interviewee’s show—it is their memories and their point of view—you are trying to preserve.

Ask easy questions first . Give interviewees a chance to relax and get comfortable with the process, so ask easy questions first. These first questions should be biographical questions that are easy to answer, like when and where the interviewee was born. Where he/she went to school? The names of his/her parents? Etc. Save more difficult questions for later in the interview.

Follow your outline, BUT be flexible . Follow the interview outline (or the written questions) that you prepared, but always be flexible and adaptable. Interviewees may not answer questions the way you think they will. Be willing to follow them if they veer off topic, at least early on, to see if their wanderings lead to useful information. If they do, then continue to follow and ask follow-up questions about the new topic. If they don’t after a few times, then try to guide the interview back to the topics on your outline.

Ask open-ended questions and only one at a time . An open-ended question is one that can’t be answered with a yes or a no. Sometimes they may not even be questions. For example, you might get more information by saying “Tell me about your time as a captain of the Texas Rangers” as opposed to asking “Were you a captain in the Texas Ranger?” If you happen to ask a close-ended question, don’t worry too much because you can follow it up with other questions if you have to. Also, ask only one question at a time and keep the language simple. This will allow the interviewee to easily understand the point of the question.

Ask questions that your interviewee can answer . One of the reasons background research is so important is that it will hopefully reveal your interviewee’s relationship/connection to the event and/or topic you are researching. Knowing this information, you can tailor your questions to specifically probe the interviewee’s memory about your topic and his/her involvement with it.

Listen actively . Active listening is hard work, but you have to do it when conducting an oral history interview. Keep in mind that as the interviewer, you are responsible for guiding the interview and asking the questions. This requires you to listen closely to what is being said, and, just as importantly, to determine what is not being said. Careful listening allows you to ask follow-up questions to clarify comments or pursue other lines of questioning. If during an interview your attention begins to wander from the interviewee’s answers, then it is time to end the interview and continue it at a later date.

Don’t argue . As the interviewer, you can challenge information from the interviewee, but don’t argue with him or her. Instead, challenge deftly in a non-confrontational way. For example, if an interviewee’s answer to a question goes against what your research shows or what other interviewees have said, then try asking for an explanation. You might say something like this, “Other sources have said this incident occurred this way, rather than the way you remembered, can you help me understand why your view is different?”

Watch for fatigue . Interviewing requires a lot of work and mental energy and can be tiring after a while. Watch for fatigue in the interviewee (especially if they are elderly) and yourself (as mentioned above, when your attention begins to wander). Keep most oral history interviews to between an hour and an hour-and-a-half, shorter if either one of you is tiring.

Don’t worry about silence . Try not to worry about periods of silence during the interview. Give the interviewee time to think about his/her answers before interrupting his/her thought process. Oftentimes you might be asking an interviewee to recall events/people from 50 or more years ago, so cut them some slack and give them time to remember.

The Nature of Oral History Sources

As you are learning in this course, historians analyze the quality and veracity of sources all the time (see earlier chapters for a review of this process)…and it is no different with oral sources. They too have to be evaluated for their dependability and accuracy. But, oral history sources also have a number of characteristics that make them different from many of the more traditional written sources that we are used to using in our research, like books, archival documents, newspapers, photographs, etc.

Some of the characteristics of oral sources are as follows:

Oral sources are personal and subjective . Oral sources are good at revealing the feelings and impressions about events, actions, and people from the interviewee’s perspective. Since the interviewee is talking about the details of his/her life and the interpretation of the details, these interviews have a deeply personal meaning to the interviewee. Some historians argue that written records are good about telling what happened in the past, while oral testimony is best at telling how people felt about what happened.

Oral sources are collaborative . Oral history interviews are collaborative in the sense that two people—an interviewee and interviewer—are working together to produce a single primary source. This is one of only a few sources where a researcher can shape the source based on the questions he/she is asking and based on the knowledge about what other sources on the subject already exist.

Oral sources are retrospective . Michael Frisch, Professor Emeritus at the University of Buffalo, argues that oral interviews are usually a dialogue between the past (the history being remembered and recalled) and the present (the act of remembering and interpreting the past based on one’s life experiences up to the time of the interview). Frisch goes on to say that oral history can produce what he calls “more history,” that is sources much like some written personal sources (e.g. memoirs, personal journals, autobiographies), but it can also be “anti-historical,” by allowing interviewees to interpret their own history free from the analysis and conclusions of historians.

Oral sources are oral . DUH! This is obvious, but the point is that the audio interview reveals more details and information than a transcribed version of the interview. Indeed, listening to a person talk conveys more meaning through voice inflections, sarcasm, sadness and happiness in tone, changes in volume and timbre, etc. The irony of oral history is that most researchers, when given the option of listening to an interview or reading the transcript, will opt for the transcript because of time constraints. Pity because they may be missing some important oral clues!

Oral sources depend on memory . In the mid-twentieth century, as historians experimented with oral history as a method of collecting historical information, some scholars criticized its reliability as a source because it was based on memory, and, as we all know, memory can be malleable, elastic, and can change over time. In short, memory can be fallible. Since those years, however, memory studies have shown that most memories are shaped just a few minutes after an action or event has taken place, which calls into questions all types of sources, not just retrospective oral sources. This is why historians insist that all sources (ALL!) must be analyzed and evaluated during the research process…and this includes oral sources too. Just because someone says he/she was there doesn’t make it true, and just because someone was there doesn’t mean his/her understanding of what happened is accurate. This is why it is best while conducting historical research to cast a wide net and look at as many different types of sources as possible.

Evaluating Oral History Interviews

Now that you are more familiar with the oral history process and may even be considering conducting interviews, or at least using some interviews that have already been archived, you might be asking yourself “how do I use these interviews in my research?” Don’t fret because evaluating oral history interviews is not much different than evaluating other types of historical sources. When assessing oral accounts, ask the following questions:

What is the reliability of the interviewee? When looking at the interview as a whole, has the interviewee been consistent and reliable throughout the session/s or has his/her story been inconsistent and changing? Did the interviewee take the interview seriously, being careful to answer questions fully and with attention to details?

Can the recollections be verified? As with other sources, can the interviewee’s account be verified and corroborated through the use of other sources, including other oral sources?

What is the interviewee’s relationship to the subject? We usually give more credence to an account if the interviewee is a direct participant in the event or was an eye-witness, as opposed to hearing about the event from someone else.

Does the interviewee have a personal stake in a particular point of view? If the interviewee is predisposed to have a bias or his/her professional or personal reputation depends on a particular interpretation of an event, then check the veracity of the account carefully. Do the same if someone has an “axe to grind” about another individual.

What was the physical condition of the interviewee at the time of the interview? Can you tell if the interviewee was in good health during the interview? Were his/her memories sharp, clear, and easily remembered, or were they belabored, halting, and difficult to recall?

Helpful Oral History Links

Below are some links to a few professional organizations for people interested in oral history and also some websites about oral history in general.

Canadian Oral History Association

Oral History, History Matters Website

Oral History, Wikipedia

Oral History Association (U.S.)

Oral History Society (Great Britain)

Texas Oral History Association

UNC Writing Center, Oral History

Oral History Bibliographies

What follows are a few links to bibliographies that include some of the more important published sources about oral history. There is now a huge body of literature about oral history, but these bibliographies are selective and include only the most impactful books.

An Oral History Bibliography, A Research Guide by the Columbia University Center for Oral History , 2009.

Selected Bibliography of Books on Oral History , UC Santa Cruz University Library, nd.

Paul Thompson, a British oral historian and author of one of the seminal books on the subject titled The Voice of the Past: Oral History , first published in 1978 and in its fourth edition, talks about the power of oral history and its potential transformative impact, when he writes:

Oral history is not necessarily an instrument for change; it depends upon the spirit in which it is used. Nevertheless, oral history certainly can be a means for transforming both the content and purpose of history. It can be used to change the focus of history itself, and open up new areas of inquiry; it can break down barriers between teachers and students, between generations, between educational institutions and the world outside; and in the writing of history…it can give back to the people who made and experienced history, through their own words, a central place. (1st edition, p. 2)

We couldn’t have said it any better!

How History is Made: A Student’s Guide to Reading, Writing, and Thinking in the Discipline Copyright © 2022 by Stephanie Cole; Kimberly Breuer; Scott W. Palmer; and Brandon Blakeslee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Guidelines for Conducting Oral Histories

As preparations for an oral history project begin, it will likely be helpful to create a research file on all who are going to be interviewed for the project. The file could contain research notes taken in preparation for the interview. You can't start cold, you have to know something about your person in order to interview them! The file may contain correspondence, news clippings, or samples of work created by the interview subject. It is a good idea to take a photograph or two of the interview subject to include in the file. Remember, preparation for the interview is key to its success.

Be sure to have a look at the Oral History Association's Best Practices  to learn about preparing for the interview process and conducting interviews. The site also includes many helpful resource links. Also, have a look at the University of Arkansas LibGuide for a tip sheet to help with interviewing. Six Rules for Creating an Oral History may also be useful in understanding narrative structures of oral histories, capturing the voice of those being interviewed, and editing the oral history project, among other topics. 

Privacy Concerns

Privacy and confidentiality are important issues in conducting oral histories. Interview subjects have a right to confidentiality of the interview unless otherwise stipulated in the release signed prior to being interviewed. In any interview candor is important. During the interview, the subject may make statements where they share industry secrets or confidential information. They may make statements that could be considered slanderous or defamatory or be potentially used against them. They may discuss delicate and difficult experiences and situations. It is important that the subject be assured that anything said during the interview is held in confidence. You may offer assurances such as anonymization or even closing the interview to public research for a limited amount of time. It is important to remember that you as the interviewer own the questions that you have created and the subject owns the answers to those questions. That means that the responses are covered by the copyright term of  70 years after the last author's death. There may be occasions where the original interview recording fully represents every topic discussed but the transcript contains a redacted version of the interview. 

Some universities may require an oral history project be submitted to the Institutional Review Board for evaluation. The University of Pittsburgh considers oral history projects to be scholarly or journalistic activities and not subject to review. However, there are occasions where an outside funder may want verification and that can be provided. For more information, please see Human Research Protection Office guidelines on exempt reviews.  Loyola University Chicago has an excellent discussion regarding institutional review boards and oral histories that provides insight into the process.

Below are resources that help you navigate privacy and confidentiality.

• Oral History Interviews: Ethical and Legal Issues Covers topics such as privacy, informed consent, data protection, and copyright. It also includes brief informative videos.
• Major Legal Challenges Facing Oral History In The Digital Age An in-depth site that discusses legal aspects to oral histories including privacy, copyright, and court cases.
• Confidentiality and anonymity in oral history research: the question of empowerment, autonomy and beneficence Paper presented at the International oral history conference: Buenos Aires 2012 discussing ethical aspects of conducting oral histories.
• Uninvited Guests, or Zoom Bombing the Oral History Interview The Oral History Association discusses what to do if your Zoom interview is interrupted by uninvited guests.

Questions To Consider

The IMLS-sponsored  ILEAD project  created helpful questions for interviewers to consider. As always, it is important to do your research and ask questions specifically related to the interview subject and topic focus of the project.

•  What is your name?
•  Were you ever given or have you ever gone by a nickname? What was it and how did you come to have it?
•  When were you born and how old are you now?
•  Where were you born and where else have you lived?
•  What is your occupation
•  How many siblings do you have and are they older or younger than you?
•  What did your parents do for a living?
•  What memorable stories do you have from when you were growing up?
•  How did you meet your husband/wife?
•  Is your family larger or small?
•  How involved is/was your extended family in your life?
•  Were your parents born in the same town as you or were they originally from somewhere else?
•  Can you tell me from what country your family name is originally from?
•  What special traditions do you and your family share for holidays or special occasions?
•  Can you tell me any memorable stories about your family or any family legends you heard growing up?
•  What were you doing when this event occurred?
•  What did you witness during the event? Who were you with?
•  What was your reaction to this event at the time?
•  Do you still understand the event in the same context as you did when you lived through it?
•  Did the event have any short-term effects on you and/or your family? Were there any long-term effects?

Local History

•  Talk a little about the place where you grew up—was it a tight-knit community?
•  Did you know all of your neighbors growing up?
•  What places in your town hold special memories for you? Why?
•  When and how was your town originally founded?
•  What momentous or important events have occurred in the town during your lifetime or since its founding?
•  Was anyone famous or noteworthy born in your town? Who are they and what are they best known for?
•  What special events or traditions does your community have?
•  Are there any large businesses or significant industries associated with your area?
•  Are there any larger businesses or significant industries associated with your area?
•  What led you to begin your current project?
•  Can you tell me more about what your project is and what you hope to accomplish?
•  How long do you expect the project to take you?
•  What benefits will this project have for you, your institution and/or the world at large?

Reflections

•  What has provided you with the greatest satisfaction or happiness in your life?
•  If you could change one thing in your life, what would it be?
•  What is the most significant change you see in the world around you from when you were growing up?
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Getting Started with Oral History

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Elizabeth Hay during her oral history interview with the JCSW , Elizabeth D. Hay papers,  OnView: Digital Collections & Exhibits , 1982 , Harvard Medical Library.

The Interview Process

• Sample Interview Questions
• Composing Your Own Questions
• Tips for Interviewers
• After an Interview

The following sample questions can be used during an oral history interview. Please feel free to take questions directly from this list, or tailor them to fit you and your narrator’s goals and needs.

Introductory

• What is the story behind your name?
• Where and when were you born?
• Where do your ancestors come from?
• What places have you called home throughout your life?
• How would you describe yourself?

Family Life and History 

• Can you tell me about the people you consider family?
• Do you have any stories or heirlooms (photographs, clothing, recipes, etc.) that have been passed down in your family?
• What did people in your family do for a living?
• Can you describe your relationship with your family?
• Which holidays or events did you celebrate with your family?

Childhood 

• What hobbies and interests did you have when you were younger? Or: what did you do for fun?
• Who were your favorite teachers? 
• What were your favorite classes?
• What are some of your earliest childhood memories?
• Who were your childhood role models?
• Are they still in your life?
• How do you keep in touch?

Love and Relationship 

• What was dating like?
• How did you meet your partner?
• When did you first fall in love?
• What lessons have you learned from your relationships?
• Do you have any favorite stories about dating or your partner?

Community and Neighborhood

• What changes have you seen in your neighborhood (or community) over time?
• What community groups or initiatives are you a part of?
• What do you do for fun?
• Where are your favorite places to eat in your neighborhood?
• Are there stories or histories tied to the people in your community?

Career 

• What were the conditions like?
• How much did you make?
• What lessons has your work life taught you?
• How did you get into your specific line of work?
• When did you retire? What was that transition like?
• How have you seen work culture change over time?

Travel Experience 

• How important has travel been in your life?
• Tell me about an important/meaningful trip. What made it special?
• Tell me about your longest trip.
• What about this place was new or different to you? 

Lifetime Changes 

• How is the world different now from when you were a child?
• How have large-scale historical events affected you and your communities? [Examples of major historical events could include:  natural disasters, wars, movements, protests and strikes, Covid-19, etc.]
• Do you remember your first contact with a radio, television, computer, or cell phone?

Personal 

• How did they influence or guide you?
• What would you say are the greatest challenges you’ve faced in life?
• What have your greatest successes been?
• What things in life make you feel fulfilled and give you the most satisfaction?
• How did you learn that lesson?
• In your family or community?

The following online resources also contain sample questions to use or consider during your oral history interview:

Family History Sample Outline and Questions , UCLA Library Center for Oral History Research

Exploring and Sharing Family Stories , Read Write Think

Oral History Question List with Downloadable Question Cards , UNC University Libraries

Sample Interview Questions , LSU Libraries

Sample Oral History Questions , National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

While you may craft some questions in advance, remember that flexibility is your friend, and your narrator may take your interview in some interesting directions. Using your interview outline as a road map, compose questions on the spot; this allows you to adapt your questions to the narrator’s experience and flow of the interview.

Ask open-ended questions

• Tell me about…
• Why…? Why not…? How did…?

Probe for details

• Explain…
• Describe…
• What was it like when…?
• Can you tell me more about…?
• How often did…?
• Can you share examples of…?

Avoid loaded and leading questions

Be mindful of your biases. Don’t suggest that you’ve already answered the question in your head.

Instead of : Wasn’t Jamaica Plain a great place to grow up?

Try: Tell me how you felt about the place where you grew up.

Instead of : Your family moved away because of rent hikes, right?

Try: Why did your family move away?

Instead of: I assume your family kept kosher. What was that like?

Try: Can you tell me about the role of religion in your family life?

Restate or summarize

• You said… Tell me more about that. 
• Let me say that back to you and make sure I understand. You said… Is that right?

Ask for definitions and clarifications

• Tell me what… means.
• What is…?
• I know what… is, but future researchers might not. Can you please tell me what it was and how it was used?
• What else…? Who else…? What other reasons…?

Flip things around

• Some people say… What do you think about that?

Adapted from Baylor University Institute for Oral History, “Composing questions,”  Introduction to Oral History Manual , 2012.

Consider your setting - Choose a quiet location and properly position your recording devices. Sit about 4 feet away from the narrator, with the recording device on a flat surface in the middle, angled toward the narrator. Frame your interview - Start your recording with a brief announcement that states the date and location of the interview, names of the interviewer and narrator, and general topic of the interview.

Example : “Today is Friday, July 31, 2022, and this is the start of an interview with Jo March at her home in Concord, Massachusetts. My name is Theodore Laurence and I’ll be the interviewer. Today we’ll mainly be talking about Ms. Marsh’s recollection of her time running a school.”

Throughout the interview

Consider using memory cues during your interview. These can be items like photographs, posters, heirlooms, scrapbooks, and newspaper clippings that could spark recollections for the narrator.

Ask open-ended questions that require more of an answer than a simple “yes” or “no.” See the Composing Questions tab for more tips on crafting thoughtful questions.

Ask one question at a time. Give the narrator time and space to answer. You can (and should!) ask follow-up questions to dig deeper or gain clarity.

Start with questions that are not controversial or difficult. If you have sensitive questions, save them until you and your narrator have settled into the interview and feel comfortable.

TIP : If you are considering asking sensitive or difficult questions, review these with the narrator during the pre-interview to ensure that they feel comfortable with the direction of the interview. Respect their needs; if they do not want to discuss a topic, do not force it.

When the narrator describes important events, ask follow-up questions to establish where they were and what they were doing at the time. This helps to make clear what is eye-witness information and what is based upon the reports of others.

Make the recording as complete and accurate a record of the interview as you can. If you are using only an audio recorder, remember that it has no visual aspect. If the narrator makes a significant gesture, follow up with a question that allows them to describe that gesture and its meaning.

Example : The narrator says, “The fish was this big,” and holds their hands about two feet apart. The interviewer follows up: “So the fish was about two feet long?”

If the narrator strays into subjects that are not pertinent to your project, gently guide them back to the topic with your next question. But be flexible! You may learn something of value through a story that may at first feel tangential.

Interviewers should center the interview around narrator and their life, and avoid making it about themselves. Remember: good interviewers don’t shine; their interviews do!

It’s okay to feel awkward

While an oral history interview can feel conversational, it’s not a typical chat; all questions are aimed at the narrator. This interview structure can take some getting used to for all involved.

TIP : Reviewing questions or topics of investigation during the pre-interview can help you and the narrator prepare.

Periods of silence are natural; don’t let them fluster you. Give your narrator time to fully answer one question before you move on to the next. Take a breath and use the opportunity to center yourself or write some notes.

Don’t worry if you stumble over some of your questions. You are not perfect and neither is your narrator! Some false starts here and there may even help put your narrator at ease.

Respect the narrator

The narrator is sharing the gift of their time and their memories, so make sure they feel heard and honored. Use positive body language and give them your full attention during the interview.

Don’t interrupt the narrator. If you think of a new and exciting question, need clarification, want to know how to spell something, etc., write it down so you remember to raise it when appropriate.

Don’t argue with the narrator. If they make a statement that you believe to be untrue, try to gather more information and fact check later.

Wrapping up the interview

End the interview at a reasonable time. Sharing memories can involve a great deal of emotional labor; you don’t want to fatigue your narrator or yourself. For most people, 60 to 90 minutes is plenty of time.

Include a brief ending announcement at the end of the interview.

Example : “This is the end of the July 31, 2020 interview with Jo March. The interviewer was Theodore Laurence.”

Make sure that the narrator has signed any necessary release forms before you part ways.

End with gratitude. Thank your narrator for sharing their time and their memories with you.

Adapted from Baylor University Institute for Oral History, “Getting the Story,” Introduction to Oral History Manual , 2012; and Boston Research Center, Oral History Toolkit , 2020. 

If your narrator isn’t too fatigued, ask them to verify the spellings of recurring names (people, places, etc.) of which you are uncertain. You can also reach out later, but it’s often easier to refine these details when the interview is still fresh in everyone’s memory.

If interviewing in the narrator’s home, be sure to leave their space as it was when you arrived.

Make sure that your narrator has signed the release form, if they haven’t done so already.

Save the recording in more than one location.

• Remember the concept of LOCKSS: Lots Of Copies Keep Stuff Safe . Keep multiple copies of your files on different storage media to ensure that your files are preserved.

Transfer the unedited, original audio recordings from the recording device to a computer hard drive as soon as possible after the interview. Check to make sure that the hard drive has sufficient memory for file storage. 

Consider saving another copy via a cloud-based service such as DropBox or Google Drive and/or an external hard drive. 

Review the recording, preferably the same day. 

Are there glitches, redactions, moments in need of clarification?

Send the narrator a thank-you note or email for sharing their time and memories with you.

Label your recordings, notes, forms, and any other materials legibly and consistently; this will help you manage these materials in the long term. 

Sometimes, sharing or hearing memories can cause feelings of discomfort or pain for narrators or interviewers participating in an oral history project. Please remember to take care of yourself throughout this process. If you or someone you know could benefit from some professional support, please consider the options in the Mental Health Resources section (under Learn More).

Adapted from Boston Research Center, Oral History Toolkit , 2020.

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3.7: Oral History and the Historical Process

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• Gerald Saxon
• University of Texas at Arlington via Mavs Open Press

There is an African proverb which goes something like this: “When an old person dies a library burns to the ground.” This proverb perhaps best reflects why the use of oral history has become so important to researchers around the world. Historical researchers over the past several decades have come to realize that everyone (let’s say this again, EVERYONE!) has a story to tell and memories to preserve—memories, like library collections and archival holdings, that help us study and understand the past and will disappear, like materials in a burning library, when an individual dies if they are not saved. The preservation of these memories and people’s life stories is called oral history.

This chapter discusses what oral history is, why we conduct oral history interviews, how oral history methods have evolved, what encompasses the oral history process, how one goes about interviewing people for historical information, and how to evaluate oral interviews and integrate them into your research. There will also be some exercises at the end of the chapter to make you a better oral historian and some useful oral history links and bibliographies for further exploration of the topic.

But first things first…

What Is Oral History?

Oral history can be defined in three different ways. First, the term oral history can refer to a body of information that each person has locked in his or her memory. One’s memory essentially represents some of a person’s life experiences (no one remembers everything) that he/she has lived through and can recall. This is the type of information that the African proverb is referring to and will disappear upon someone’s death.

The second definition sees oral history as a body of literature based on first-person accounts created using an interview process. These oral accounts may be published in either popular and/or scholarly books and articles; be integrated into museum exhibits, TV scripts and programs, or other forms of media; or that exist as archival material in archives, libraries, and other cultural institutions.

The third definition, and the one this chapter will focus on, defines oral history as a method of collecting historical information from individuals who have firsthand knowledge of the subject one is researching. As a method, oral history uses the interview and the familiar Q&A format as a way to preserve historical content.

Oral historians like to say that the oral history method must include four different ingredients to be considered oral history. These are:

• Interviewee. The individual being interviewed for historical purposes is called the interviewee (The person can also be referred to as the subject, narrator, or memoirist.). The interviewee is carefully selected because he/she is an eye-witness to, or a participant in, whatever subject the interviewer is studying.
• Interviewer. The person conducting the interview is called the interviewer. This is the person (probably you as a researcher) asking questions and guiding the interview. This is exciting work, but make sure you are prepared for each interview. Follow the interview guidelines later in the chapter to give yourself the best chance for success.
• Recording Device . To capture the audio of an interview, the interviewer records it using a digital recorder or even a phone with recording capabilities. Recording the interview gives the oral historian options for how best to preserve and later use the interview. For example, the interview can be transcribed, or donated to a library for preservation, or the audio can be indexed for immediate use with the option of transcribing the interview in total at a later date.
• Q&A Interview . We are all familiar with the Q&A format because we are used to seeing people interviewed on TV, in social media, and in other venues. Also, many of us have participated in interviews ourselves, especially when we have applied for jobs. But just because a source is oral doesn’t make it oral history. It is important to emphasize that oral history isn’t the recording of speeches and songs, or the recording of a monologue, or the secret recording of conversations between unsuspecting people. Rather, to be considered oral history, both people are knowingly participating in the Q&A process and speaking for the historical record.

Why Do We Do Oral History?

There are a number of compelling reasons to do oral history interviews to aid in your research, but they all boil down to two basic ones. First, oral interviews can be used to fill in the gaps in the documentary research you are conducting. Let’s face it, books, articles, records, and documents don’t always answer every question a researcher may have. So if you are conducting research on a contemporary topic (let’s say an event, person, subject, etc., that happened in the last 50-75 years) and there are still people alive who were participants or eye-witnesses, then you may want to conduct interviews aimed at helping answer questions that written records are silent about or they don’t give you the complete story. One of the strengths of oral history is that it is one of only a few sources where the researcher has a hand in creating it. This means you as a researcher can ask whatever questions you want to help fill the information gaps. In short, used this way, oral history can be targeted to supplement written records.

The “father” of modern oral history in the U.S., Dr. Allan Nevins, a historian at Columbia University in the mid-twentieth century, used oral history in just this way. He essentially “debriefed” interviewees that he had selected so that their testimonies could fill in the gaps in written records. He also used early tape-recorders to capture their voices, had their interviews transcribed, and he placed the transcripts and later the audio recordings in an archives where they could be used by other researchers. As a result of his efforts, the first institutional oral history project in the U.S. was created at Columbia University in New York City in 1948. The project is still going strong today.

Another reason to use oral history–and maybe even a more exciting one–is to use oral history interviews when there are no written records. Archives, libraries, museums, and other cultural institutions are filled with records and sources that document the elites of the world, such as politicians, successful businessmen, celebrities, leaders, etc. But the majority of people are either undocumented or under-documented, and oral history can be an effective way to capture their stories so they can be added to the historical narrative.

This is the reason why one of the earliest oral history/interview projects in the U.S. in the 20th century focused on interviewing former Southern slaves during 1936-1938. This project was part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal designed to put people back to work during the Great Depression. Government-sponsored interviewers fanned out across some of the Southern states to interview former slaves before all of them had passed away (keep in mind this was some seventy years after the end of the Civil War). Called the Slave Narrative Project, more than 2,300 interviews were conducted and transcribed, making it the largest single body of primary sources about slavery where the slaves spoke for themselves about their experiences in bondage. All of the interviews have been preserved by the Library of Congress and are available to researchers in a digital archive.

Another good example of oral history being used to collect the experiences, memories, and observations of mostly undocumented people is the USC Shoah Foundation’s interviews with Holocaust survivors. Famous Hollywood director Steven Speilberg started the project in the 1990s and, over a five year period, volunteers and others collected video oral histories from more than 50,000 individuals from around the world. In addition to documenting the experiences of Jewish survivors, the foundation also interviewed homosexual survivors, Jehovah’s Witness survivors, liberators and liberation witnesses, political prisoners, rescuers and aid providers, Roma and Sinti (Gypsy) survivors, survivors of Eugenics policies, and war crimes trials participants. USC has provided a way for individuals to gain free access to a “small” set of the interviews (more than 3,000) in the archives . The Shoah Project and the Slave Narrative Project represent oral history at its best.

The Oral History Process

Before we cover interview techniques and guidelines in the next section, let’s discuss the oral history process, or the steps to go through when you decide to conduct interviews. The steps are:

• Select your research topic . This is a critical first step and the key to deciding if oral history can be a part of the research process. Keep in mind that oral history aims to interview eye-witnesses to, or participants in, whatever subject you are studying. So if your subject is more than 50-75 years old then there is little chance of using oral history because there will probably not be any potential interviewees still alive. If, however, your topic is recent and there are possible interviewees available, then go to the next step.
• Conduct preliminary research about your topic. Begin to learn more about your topic. Take a look at what has been written by conducting a literature review. Start compiling names and contact information for potential interviewees and record how these individuals relate to your research subject.
• Contact potential interviewees . Prioritize the interviewee list you have compiled, contacting the most important individual or individuals on the list to request an interview. Be sure to explain what oral history is, why you want to interview them, what you plan to do with the information they will give you, and any other pertinent information about your research project. Schedule an interview for a time and place convenient for you and the interviewee. A quiet place is best—a location free from any distractions. [On a side note, consider yourself lucky because beginning in 2018, the federal government exempted oral historians and journalists from going through university Institutional Research Boards’ (IRBs) approval process for conducting “human subject research.” In the past, anyone wanting to use individuals in their research had to go through a fairly long, complicated vetting process seeking approval from a local IRB before they could begin. This vetting process was designed to protect human subjects, especially during medical and other scientific research. Historical research using human subjects is fundamentally different from medical testing, so the federal government has now exempted oral history from IRB vetting.]
• Conduct research on the interviewee and compile an interview outline . The key to a good oral history interview is background research. Before any interview, it is important to conduct as much research as possible so that you know something about the interviewee’s life and how he/she relates to your subject. Once you have completed the research, then create an interview outline, placing the most important subjects that you want to ask about first and so on. Some students may prefer to write a list of questions, but, in any case, think about the order of the questions/subjects and how you would like the interview to unfold. It may not unfold the way you think it will, but it is important to think about the interview as a whole before you talk to the interviewee.
• Practice with the recorder . Before meeting with the interviewee, make sure you know how to operate the recorder. In fact, by the time of the interview, the recorder’s operation should be second nature to you. Getting into an interview and fumbling around trying to figure out how to start, pause, stop, reverse, set recording levels, etc., is a no-no!
• Record an introduction before each interview . Each recorded interview should be preceded by an introduction giving some basic information about the interview and the participants. Something along this line will work: “This is (your name) interviewing (interviewee’s name) for a research project focusing on (the subject of your research). Today’s date is (give date here) and I am at (location of the interview). I am here to talk with (name of the interviewee/Mr. or Ms. So-in-so) about his/her involvement with (your subject). Hello Mr./Ms, (last name). Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed today. Begin your first question.”
• Conduct the interview. See the next section “Interviewing Basics.”
• Get an interview agreement signed . Before any interview, prepare an interview agreement form for your interviewee to sign, The reason for an agreement form is that the interview is protected by U.S. copyright law as soon as it has been completed and is fixed in a “tangible form.” This fixed form can be a digital audio file (recording), or a transcript, or both. This means the interviewee owns his/her words and should formally transfer the copyright of these words to you so that you can quote directly from the interview should you choose. This is especially important if you are planning to “publish” any of your research at a later date. Publishing in this context can be anything from quoting in social media to producing a scholarly product like a book, article, or exhibit text (the Oral History Association has a brief explanation of copyright law ). SAADA has a sample interview release form to use.
• Send a thank you . After the interview, be sure to send a thank you to the interviewee for participating in your research project. Maintaining contact with the interviewee may also help you in the future should you run into problems interpreting or using the information in the interview. You might need help in clarifying a concept, or figuring out a name, or spelling a word you are unfamiliar with.
• Transcribe the interview (optional) . You may want to transcribe the interview to make it easier to use. If you do, then make sure you adhere to a set of common guidelines for the transcribing process. Baylor University’s Center for Oral History has placed its guidelines online. They are some of the most comprehensive available and have evolved over the past fifty years. They are also easy to follow. If you are conducting oral history interviews for the Texas Disability History Collection housed in Special Collections of the UT Arlington Libraries, then use the guidelines that Dr. Sarah Rose Director of UT Arlington’s Disabilities Studies Minor, has compiled (see Dr. Rose for these guidelines).
• Evaluate and use the interview. See the section below titled “Evaluating Oral History Content.”

Interviewing Basics

Before you sit down to conduct an interview, decide what kind of interview you are planning to do. Basically, there are two types of oral history interviews. The first is a biographical interview. These interviews focus on an interviewee’s entire life, and usually take a great deal of time to do properly. In biographical interviews, the interviewer covers all of the major parts of an interviewee’s life, including his/her childhood, education, growing up, career, family life, etc. Not surprisingly, such interviews often take several sessions to complete.

The second type of interview is the topical interview. This interview focuses on how the interviewee’s life intersects with your research topic. Most students who are using oral history for a research paper will be conducting topical interviews. While you do want to record some basic biographical information about each interviewee even in topical interviews, the main focus should be to ask questions that reveal how the interviewee has impacted your topic or witnessed something about your subject. In this way, you are creating another primary source to analyze and use when writing your research paper.

Regardless of the type of interview you plan to conduct, students should understand that interviews are a two-way process. Some call this a “transactional process,” where the interviewee is giving information (by answering questions), but so is the interviewer. Not surprisingly, the interviewer’s gender, race, language, clothing, age, appearance, and other factors telegraph certain pieces of information to the interviewee, and this information can shape what the interviewee remembers or is willing to discuss. For example, some interviewee’s may be willing to tell a female interviewer something that they would never tell a male interviewer, and, of course, vice versa. While there is not much one can do about this, just be aware of the signals you may be sending to the interviewee and try to make your questions professional, neutral, and free from bias of any kind. Also, keep your language appropriate to the educational level of your interviewee and as free of jargon as possible.

Oral historians have often wished that interviewing techniques could be distilled down to a few basic guidelines that would guarantee usable interviews, but, alas, no such magic guidelines exist. Interviews can vary wildly in terms of quality, even when interviewing the same interviewee over multiple sessions! After all, people are people—we have good days and bad days, and this can be reflected in what and how we remember.

What follows, however, are some interview guidelines that, if followed, will give you, as the interviewer, the best chance for success.

Research, research, research. As mentioned above, good background research is one of the keys to a good interview. Follow the paper and digital trail about your interviewee and the topic you will be asking about. Know where the gaps exist in the written records and try to fill these gaps at the very least. If there are no written records—or precious few—then follow the journalistic method by asking when, who, what, where, and how questions about your topic. Never—NEVER—go into an interview cold having done no research!

Establish a relaxed atmosphere . As stated above, pick a location for the interview that is quiet, free from distractions, and convenient. If possible, there should only be the two of you (interviewee and interviewer) participating in the interview.

Build and maintain rapport . Trust is an important part of the interview process. The interviewee will reveal more information if he/she trusts you as an interviewer. If the interviewee wants to avoid certain topics, then abide by their wishes. If they tell you something is “off the record,” then make sure it is kept “off the record.” Always keep in mind that the interview is the interviewee’s show—it is their memories and their point of view—you are trying to preserve.

Ask easy questions first . Give interviewees a chance to relax and get comfortable with the process, so ask easy questions first. These first questions should be biographical questions that are easy to answer, like when and where the interviewee was born. Where he/she went to school? The names of his/her parents? Etc. Save more difficult questions for later in the interview.

Follow your outline, BUT be flexible . Follow the interview outline (or the written questions) that you prepared, but always be flexible and adaptable. Interviewees may not answer questions the way you think they will. Be willing to follow them if they veer off topic, at least early on, to see if their wanderings lead to useful information. If they do, then continue to follow and ask follow-up questions about the new topic. If they don’t after a few times, then try to guide the interview back to the topics on your outline.

Ask open-ended questions and only one at a time . An open-ended question is one that can’t be answered with a yes or a no. Sometimes they may not even be questions. For example, you might get more information by saying “Tell me about your time as a captain of the Texas Rangers” as opposed to asking “Were you a captain in the Texas Ranger?” If you happen to ask a close-ended question, don’t worry too much because you can follow it up with other questions if you have to. Also, ask only one question at a time and keep the language simple. This will allow the interviewee to easily understand the point of the question.

Ask questions that your interviewee can answer . One of the reasons background research is so important is that it will hopefully reveal your interviewee’s relationship/connection to the event and/or topic you are researching. Knowing this information, you can tailor your questions to specifically probe the interviewee’s memory about your topic and his/her involvement with it.

Listen actively . Active listening is hard work, but you have to do it when conducting an oral history interview. Keep in mind that as the interviewer, you are responsible for guiding the interview and asking the questions. This requires you to listen closely to what is being said, and, just as importantly, to determine what is not being said. Careful listening allows you to ask follow-up questions to clarify comments or pursue other lines of questioning. If during an interview your attention begins to wander from the interviewee’s answers, then it is time to end the interview and continue it at a later date.

Don’t argue . As the interviewer, you can challenge information from the interviewee, but don’t argue with him or her. Instead, challenge deftly in a non-confrontational way. For example, if an interviewee’s answer to a question goes against what your research shows or what other interviewees have said, then try asking for an explanation. You might say something like this, “Other sources have said this incident occurred this way, rather than the way you remembered, can you help me understand why your view is different?”

Watch for fatigue . Interviewing requires a lot of work and mental energy and can be tiring after a while. Watch for fatigue in the interviewee (especially if they are elderly) and yourself (as mentioned above, when your attention begins to wander). Keep most oral history interviews to between an hour and an hour-and-a-half, shorter if either one of you is tiring.

Don’t worry about silence . Try not to worry about periods of silence during the interview. Give the interviewee time to think about his/her answers before interrupting his/her thought process. Oftentimes you might be asking an interviewee to recall events/people from 50 or more years ago, so cut them some slack and give them time to remember.

The Nature of Oral History Sources

As you are learning in this course, historians analyze the quality and veracity of sources all the time (see earlier chapters for a review of this process)…and it is no different with oral sources. They too have to be evaluated for their dependability and accuracy. But, oral history sources also have a number of characteristics that make them different from many of the more traditional written sources that we are used to using in our research, like books, archival documents, newspapers, photographs, etc.

Some of the characteristics of oral sources are as follows:

Oral sources are personal and subjective . Oral sources are good at revealing the feelings and impressions about events, actions, and people from the interviewee’s perspective. Since the interviewee is talking about the details of his/her life and the interpretation of the details, these interviews have a deeply personal meaning to the interviewee. Some historians argue that written records are good about telling what happened in the past, while oral testimony is best at telling how people felt about what happened.

Oral sources are collaborative . Oral history interviews are collaborative in the sense that two people—an interviewee and interviewer—are working together to produce a single primary source. This is one of only a few sources where a researcher can shape the source based on the questions he/she is asking and based on the knowledge about what other sources on the subject already exist.

Oral sources are retrospective . Michael Frisch, Professor Emeritus at the University of Buffalo, argues that oral interviews are usually a dialogue between the past (the history being remembered and recalled) and the present (the act of remembering and interpreting the past based on one’s life experiences up to the time of the interview). Frisch goes on to say that oral history can produce what he calls “more history,” that is sources much like some written personal sources (e.g. memoirs, personal journals, autobiographies), but it can also be “anti-historical,” by allowing interviewees to interpret their own history free from the analysis and conclusions of historians.

Oral sources are oral . DUH! This is obvious, but the point is that the audio interview reveals more details and information than a transcribed version of the interview. Indeed, listening to a person talk conveys more meaning through voice inflections, sarcasm, sadness and happiness in tone, changes in volume and timbre, etc. The irony of oral history is that most researchers, when given the option of listening to an interview or reading the transcript, will opt for the transcript because of time constraints. Pity because they may be missing some important oral clues!

Oral sources depend on memory . In the mid-twentieth century, as historians experimented with oral history as a method of collecting historical information, some scholars criticized its reliability as a source because it was based on memory, and, as we all know, memory can be malleable, elastic, and can change over time. In short, memory can be fallible. Since those years, however, memory studies have shown that most memories are shaped just a few minutes after an action or event has taken place, which calls into questions all types of sources, not just retrospective oral sources. This is why historians insist that all sources (ALL!) must be analyzed and evaluated during the research process…and this includes oral sources too. Just because someone says he/she was there doesn’t make it true, and just because someone was there doesn’t mean his/her understanding of what happened is accurate. This is why it is best while conducting historical research to cast a wide net and look at as many different types of sources as possible.

Evaluating Oral History Interviews

Now that you are more familiar with the oral history process and may even be considering conducting interviews, or at least using some interviews that have already been archived, you might be asking yourself “how do I use these interviews in my research?” Don’t fret because evaluating oral history interviews is not much different than evaluating other types of historical sources. When assessing oral accounts, ask the following questions:

What is the reliability of the interviewee? When looking at the interview as a whole, has the interviewee been consistent and reliable throughout the session/s or has his/her story been inconsistent and changing? Did the interviewee take the interview seriously, being careful to answer questions fully and with attention to details?

Can the recollections be verified? As with other sources, can the interviewee’s account be verified and corroborated through the use of other sources, including other oral sources?

What is the interviewee’s relationship to the subject? We usually give more credence to an account if the interviewee is a direct participant in the event or was an eye-witness, as opposed to hearing about the event from someone else.

Does the interviewee have a personal stake in a particular point of view? If the interviewee is predisposed to have a bias or his/her professional or personal reputation depends on a particular interpretation of an event, then check the veracity of the account carefully. Do the same if someone has an “axe to grind” about another individual.

What was the physical condition of the interviewee at the time of the interview? Can you tell if the interviewee was in good health during the interview? Were his/her memories sharp, clear, and easily remembered, or were they belabored, halting, and difficult to recall?

Helpful Oral History Links

Below are some links to a few professional organizations for people interested in oral history and also some websites about oral history in general.

Canadian Oral History Association

Oral History, History Matters Website

Oral History, Wikipedia

Oral History Association (U.S.)

Oral History Society (Great Britain)

Texas Oral History Association

UNC Writing Center, Oral History

Oral History Bibliographies

What follows are a few links to bibliographies that include some of the more important published sources about oral history. There is now a huge body of literature about oral history, but these bibliographies are selective and include only the most impactful books.

An Oral History Bibliography, A Research Guide by the Columbia University Center for Oral History , 2009.

Selected Bibliography of Books on Oral History , UC Santa Cruz University Library, nd.

Paul Thompson, a British oral historian and author of one of the seminal books on the subject titled The Voice of the Past: Oral History , first published in 1978 and in its fourth edition, talks about the power of oral history and its potential transformative impact, when he writes:

Oral history is not necessarily an instrument for change; it depends upon the spirit in which it is used. Nevertheless, oral history certainly can be a means for transforming both the content and purpose of history. It can be used to change the focus of history itself, and open up new areas of inquiry; it can break down barriers between teachers and students, between generations, between educational institutions and the world outside; and in the writing of history…it can give back to the people who made and experienced history, through their own words, a central place. (1st edition, p. 2)

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Craniofacial defects encompass a range of deformities affecting the skull, facial bones, and soft tissues, often resulting from trauma, genetic diseases, or abnormal embryonic development. These defects can have severe implications, including intellectual disability and visual impairment, necessitating functional reconstruction for optimal patient outcomes. However, despite extensive research in both clinical and basic sciences, the development of novel and effective strategies for craniofacial defect reconstruction remains an ongoing challenge. To address this gap in knowledge, we invite original research, case reports, and review papers that explore various aspects of functional reconstruction for craniofacial defects. Specifically, we seek contributions that delve into the following areas: -Advanced clinical investigations, showcasing current functional reconstruction strategies and surgical techniques, and their efficacy in treating craniofacial defects -Cell biology and biomedical technology for reconstructing craniofacial defects -Immunotherapeutic strategy to manipulate oral inflammation-caused craniofacial defects, such as maxillofacial bone loss, craniofacial muscle fibrosis, facial skin scar, etc -Application of computational technology, artificial intelligence, and additive manufacturing technology in treating craniofacial defects, including the defects that happen after oral oncology treatment. -Advancements in basic science research, investigating the genetic changes, etiology, and pathogenesis of craniofacial defects to facilitate the exploration of new therapeutic strategies. -Other related research and reviews that contribute to our understanding of craniofacial defects and their management. By collating and sharing the latest insights in this field, we aim to accelerate progress in functional reconstruction, ultimately improving the quality of life for individuals with craniofacial defects.

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Unlocking the Past: World History Research Topics

History is a vast ocean of knowledge, its depths teeming with untold stories, powerful figures, and transformative events. As history students, embarking on a research paper is akin to setting sail on this ocean, seeking to uncover its secrets.

Table of content

Charting the Course: The Importance of History Learning

History equips us with a broader understanding of our world, the cultures that populate it, and the events that shaped it. It imbues us with the ability to reflect on past actions, appreciate the present, and influence the future. From the political upheavals of ancient Rome to the technological revolutions of the 20th century, history is the wellspring of human wisdom.

Preparing the Ship: The Art of Research Writing

Research writing is a crucial skill to master, not just for historians but across numerous academic disciplines. Formulating a question, searching for relevant sources, analyzing findings, and presenting a coherent argument are invaluable assets.

However, the true art of research writing lies in selecting a suitable topic, which can be daunting given history’s expansive nature. Let’s explore fascinating world history research paper topics that can pique interest and spur academic exploration.

Unfurling the Sails: World History Research Paper Topics

Ancient civilizations.

Ancient civilizations provide a window into the early development of human societies. These societies laid the groundwork for modern political systems, philosophies, technologies, and more. Studying ancient civilizations gives us invaluable insights into human behavior, societal structures, and cultural norms.

Research Topics:

• The Influence of Ancient Greek Democracy on Modern Political Systems
• The Technological Innovations of the Ancient Chinese Empire
• The Cultural Impact of the Indus Valley Civilization
• The Architectural Marvels of Ancient Egypt
• The Role of Religion in Ancient Mayan Society
• Trade and Commerce in Ancient Rome
• The Philosophical Contributions of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
• The Decline and Fall of the Persian Empire
• Comparative Study of Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology
• The Mesoamerican Achievements in Astronomy
• The Power Structure in the Ancient Egyptian Society
• The Legal Code of Hammurabi in Ancient Babylon
• The Origins and Spread of Buddhism in Ancient India
• Art and Culture in the Byzantine Empire
• The Influence of Confucianism on Ancient Chinese Society
• The Role of Women in Ancient Rome
• The Medical Practices and Innovations of Ancient Greece
• The Rise and Fall of Ancient Civilizations: A Comparative Study
• The Military Strategies of Alexander the Great

The World Wars were catastrophic events that drastically altered the global landscape. These conflicts led to massive shifts in power, significant technological advancements, and societal changes and shaped the 20th century.

• The Socio-Economic Effects of World War I on Europe
• The Changing Role of Women during World War II
• The Consequences of the Treaty of Versailles
• The Impact of the Holocaust on the Jewish Diaspora
• The Use of Propaganda in World War II
• The Battle of Stalingrad and its Strategic Importance
• The Influence of World Wars on Literature and Art
• The Role of Technology and Innovation in World War I
• The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
• The Formation of the United Nations Post World War II
• The Effect of World War I on the Middle East
• The Great Depression and its Link to World War II
• The Impact of World Wars on the Rise and Fall of Colonial Empires
• The Psychological Effects of the Trench Warfare in World War I
• The Role of Intelligence and Espionage in World War II
• The Interwar Period: Political and Social Changes
• The Development and Impact of Chemical Warfare in World War I
• The Role of the United States in World War II
• The Aftermath of World Wars on Global Power Structure

The Age of Revolution

The Age of Revolution was a period marked by numerous global political, industrial, and intellectual revolutions. These revolutions played a crucial role in shaping the modern world, leading to significant societal transformations and laying the foundation of contemporary political and economic systems.

• The Impact of the French Revolution on European Monarchies
• The Role of the Industrial Revolution in Shaping the Contemporary Economy
• The American Revolution and the Birth of a Nation
• The Impact of the Scientific Revolution on Human Understanding of the Universe
• The Role of Enlightenment Philosophers in the French Revolution
• The Agricultural Revolution and its Impact on Society
• The Russian Revolution and the Rise of the Soviet Union
• The Haitian Revolution and its Influence on the Abolitionist Movement
• The Role of Women in the French Revolution
• The Glorious Revolution and the Establishment of Constitutional Monarchy in England
• The Technological Advancements of the Industrial Revolution
• The Chinese Revolution and the Birth of the People’s Republic of China
• The Social Consequences of the Industrial Revolution
• The Influence of the American Revolution on Latin American Revolutions
• The Cultural Revolution in China: Causes and Consequences
• The Role of Revolutionary Movements in Decolonization
• The Economic Effects of the Industrial Revolution
• The Role of Printing Press in the Reformation Revolution
• The Arab Spring: Causes and Impact

Historical Figures

Studying historical figures allows us to better understand the times they lived in, the challenges they faced, the ideals they held, and the legacies they left behind. It allows us to reflect on their actions and their impact on historical events and trends.

• Martin Luther King Jr.’s Influence on the Civil Rights Movement
• Gandhi’s Role in India’s Independence
• The Leadership Styles of Winston Churchill and Adolf Hitler: A Comparative Study
• The Influence of Joan of Arc on the Hundred Years’ War
• The Scientific Contributions of Isaac Newton
• The Political and Social Impact of Nelson Mandela in South Africa
• The Influence of Queen Victoria on the British Empire
• The Role of Lenin in the Russian Revolution
• The Philosophical Impact of Friedrich Nietzsche
• The Literary Contributions of William Shakespeare
• The Artistic Legacy of Leonardo Da Vinci
• The Impact of Cleopatra on the Roman Empire
• The Musical Innovations of Ludwig van Beethoven
• The Life and Contributions of Marie Curie to Science
• The Impact of Harriet Tubman on the Abolitionist Movement
• The Role of Otto von Bismarck in the Unification of Germany
• The Leadership and Legacy of Queen Elizabeth I
• The Influence of Sigmund Freud on Psychology
• The Cultural Impact of Elvis Presley

Riding the Waves: Final Thoughts

Embarking on a research paper journey is exciting, yet it requires careful preparation and a clear direction. Remember, history is an unending dialogue between the past and the present. Therefore, always seek to find relevance in your chosen topic, connecting historical events and figures with contemporary issues and ideas.

In the voyage of academic exploration, the destination matters, but it’s the journey that truly educates, enlightens, and empowers. Set your sails, and let the winds of curiosity guide you.