Humbling Moments: Facing Failures in the Field and Debriefing on Oral History Practice

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

Beginning a new oral history project is always a daunting but exhilarating task. Upon entering the field, our carefully crafted methodologies quickly fall by the wayside, evolving as the people we meet bring our projects to life and make them their own.

Every encounter we have with our interviewees is unpredictable because we tend to know little to nothing about them until we sit face to face and strike up a conversation. Sometimes we connect immediately, bonding midway through a good story. In other instances, building trust takes time and occurs over a series of meetings. The potential for outright failure also looms large in these spaces. On occasion, it is difficult to find common ground with an interviewee. Informants may reveal too much or too little. Or, they reveal all and then retract their permission to use the interview. They may spend the interview assessing your right to hear their story or they may assume authority on the interviewers part that may effect change, bring closure, or result in assistance.

It is next to impossible to forget these breakdowns in communication. These moments, which some deem to be outright failures and others view as opportunities for learning, can change the direction of our projects and alter the relationships we build thereafter. This roundtable will provide an opportunity to debrief about these sorts of encounters, offering a space to explore how these experiences shape oral historians, their interviews, and the work that results.

The format of this roundtable will be non-traditional and collaborative in nature, with the aim of encouraging discussion amongst everyone in the room. Roundtable panelists will help to make connections between the audience’s contributions, drawing together the general themes that arise out of people’s particular experiences and offering ways to move forward.

Sub Unit

• Oral History Association Annual Meeting

Panelists

• Stacey Zembrzycki, Concordia University

• Margo Shea, Salem State University

• Sherna Berger Gluck, California State University, Long Beach

• Matthew Barlow, Salem State University

• Janis Lee Thiessen, University of Winnipeg

Chair

• Anna Sheftel, Saint Paul University