THE ABBREVIATED LIFE STORY INTERVIEWBROOKE BRYAN, ANTIOCH COLLEGE

ORAL HISTORY IN THE LIBERAL ARTS

A TACTICAL APPROACH TO ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWING

IT BEGINS WITH INFORMED CONSENTWe cannot possibly interview people in the name of oral history without going through a rigorous informed consent process:

• go over your project statement/research goals/outcomes• why you sought them out as an interviewee• provide explicit descriptions of how the interviews will be

accessed, used, and published. • help your interviewee conceive of potential audiences • how they can decide to opt-out, and when an opt-out is no

longer feasible• sharing of release forms which are signed after the interview

WHAT DO WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY “INFORMED CONSENT?”

The federal government requires institutions receiving federal funds to be certain that elements of informed consent are in place before their affiliates can commence research involving human subjects.

LEGAL

Professional organizations, scholars, and public intellectuals recommend protocols for best practices, in keeping with contemporary ethical sensibilities and possibly applicable legal landscapes.

ETHICAL

WHAT DO WE MEAN WHEN WE SAY “INFORMED CONSENT?”

Institutional Review Boards are a mandated entity at institutions that receive federal funds. They exist to be sure that all projects affiliated with the institution have rigorous informed consent practices in place for projects involving people. The Principal Investigator is the responsible party.

LEGALPracticing oral history in accordance with the standards published by the Oral History Association is a voluntary decision to act in accordance with the professional community of practitioners.However, certain funding agencies will often only fund projects that adopt professional best practices.

ETHICAL

THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW• an interview is a conversation between two people on a

pre-established topic/theme• a willing interviewee wants to share their experience.

don’t overestimate your role as interviewer (who is ‘doing’ what? facilitate the conversation.)

• Interviewing LISTENING is an art form that becomes more refined with practice

• a refined interview style comes from how you structure the interview time, and how you ask questions/follow-up questions

THINK. PLAN. ACT. INTERPRET.Thus, before embarking on a busy

interview schedule one needs to be oriented to one's question or notion in such a strong manner that one does

not get easily carried away with interviews that go everywhere and

nowhere. ~Max van Manen

BE TACTICAL. The ‘abbreviated life story’ interview model is just one example of how to

structure the interview space, developed to be a resource for

student and volunteer interviewers with little methodological training.

LEDE

REFLECTIVE TURN: TOWARDS IMPLICATIONS AND MEANING

PURPOSEFUL TURN: TOWARDS THE TOPIC

DEPTH QUESTIONS

EARLY LIFE

FINAL THOUGHTS

THE LEDEAfter sound checks, begin recording with a lede that

establishes the identity of interviewer and interviewee, the place and date, and implicit consent to participate in the stated

project for the stated purpose. Your lede will be directly related to your project statement.

“I am Brooke Bryan, here with Juanita Shockey Harris, to talk about her life as a quiltmaker for a project exploring Flow and

Conservation Cultures in Oral History in the Liberal Arts. Juanita, thank you for your willingness to speak with me. Can

you please state your full name, and your birth date?” …

“Thanks. Today is March 13, 2016. Let’s begin with…”

EARLY LIFELet’s start at the beginning. Tell me about your family and where you grew up…What family values were passed on to you?Who were your key mentors or teachers?

• Seek sensory descriptions (visuals/sounds/smells). Family dinner times, neighborhood friends, early learning experiences.

• Just be interested! Ease into the conversation and allow yourselves to get comfortable.

THE PURPOSEFUL TURN

Bring the interview to the topic at hand, towards the particular theme at hand: For place-based or event-focused projects, you can bring about the ‘purposeful turn’ with questions like:

• “You grew up in Idaho. How did you come to find yourself in Yellow Springs?”

• “I know you experienced the March ‘64 demonstrations in your home town, but let’s get a sense of the community before those events unfolded. Where did you go for social events, where did people go for fun?”

THE PURPOSEFUL TURN For thematically-oriented projects exploring ideas, broad themes of social history, or communities of practice:

• “how did you first become involved with *** organization?”• “when did you first realize you were perceived by others as

different?” • “what is your first memory of being ***?” • “when did you know you wanted to be a *** (English major,

marine biologist)?”• “how did you come to be involved with ***

(person/institution/community)?”

DEPTH QUESTIONS• An interview project— especially one that has multiple

volunteer or student interviewers— must have a core set of questions that get at the heart of the project’s intent

• Depth questions provide continuity across interviews• Depth questions should be carefully researched and are

probably established by the project planners and advisory group

• Depth questions were articulated in your IRB application (if applicable) and

THE REFLECTIVE TURNOnce the topic is explored through structured Depth Questions, bring the interview to the reflective stage by giving the interviewee space to ponder what it all means, why it matters.

• “Bring us to contemporary times. Where did things go from there? Have things changed?”

• “Would you do something differently if you could do it all over? Do you have regrets?”

• “Were your actions/responses enough?”• “Have your experiences

• —changed your perspective?”• —impacted the trajectory of your life?”• —caused you to think differently?”• —brought change to your family?”

CONCLUSION & FOLLOW-UPThis is your chance to return to unfinished business in the interview, open it up to topics you didn’t ask about, and thank the interviewer for participating.

• Earlier you mentioned… and I’d like to go back to that…

• Is there anything we haven’t spoken about that you would like to talk about?

• Thank you so much for speaking with me today.

RESOURCESOral History in the Liberal ArtsOral History in the Digital AgeOral History Association Best PracticesForms in the Community Oral History Toolkit‘Do History’ Oral History ToolkitBaylor University Intro to Oral History packetQuestion generator at StoryCorpsThe American Folklife Center’s Cultural Documentation Resources