Qualitative Methods: Interviewing and Oral History

Lecturer: Andrea Peto, Department of Gender Studies (petoa@ceu.edu)

2015-2016

Winter Term

Total class hours: 22

Credit: 2

Cross listed with the Department of History

Guest lecturers: Laszlo Csirmaz, CEU Computing and Statistical Center, Ivett Molnar,

CEU Library

Class meets: Monday 9.00-10.40

Office hours: TBA

Office: Zrinyi 15. Room 505

Course Description

This course is designed for those who want to use interviewing as a method collecting

empirical material for their thesis. The course also discusses ethical dimensions of

research and writing. Given that oral history is a technique and a way of constructing

histories the course tries to offer an overview of different ways of how to construct the

information and how to analyze it in a wider methodological context. The course

consists of two parts: lectures are followed by seminars where participants will have the

chance to practice making and analyzing interviews. Students will also develop

interviewing and digital skills. Special sessions will introduce the students to available

on-line interview data bases and qualitative software programs analyzing texts. The

readings are available at the course website (moodle) and all assignments should be

uploaded or posted there. If you have problems with the moodle (you uploaded the

wrong file etc) contact Gabor Acs, acsg@ceu.edu directly.

Learning outcomes:

Identifying the possibilities and limits of using interviews in historical

research,

Ability to apply qualitative data analysis/narrative analysis in research

paper,

Developing oral skills of presenting information, critical analysis and

interviewing; creating compelling, original arguments that integrate theoretical

perspectives and research findings and that advance reasonable conclusions,

Using digital methods in doing and archiving interviews,

Gaining confidence in critical writing and oral analysis;

Applying different IT in collecting, analyzing and communicating findings from

interviews.

Aim:

The course aims to enrich students’ ability to collect and analyze interview data by

using different methods - biographical method, method of oral history, qualitative

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research software programs – in order to form an interdisciplinary approach to the

social problematic through text, conversation, visual materials and body language. The

course uses interviews from the Visual History Archive (VHA) and from other digital

archives.

Course requirement:

Enrolled students are required to regularly attend classes and to participate in the class

discussions, which are based on the readings for that particular week, write two

reflection papers for the class, to do one interview of max. 5 minutes with the necessary

paperwork and to write a paper based on that interview. Each of the requirements must

be satisfied for a passing grade. Students missing a class are requested to notify the

instructor via email before the class.

Proposal (10%)

Write a brief proposal describing your interview project. Your proposal should not be

longer than 1000 words, describing your general interest, why did you choose this topic,

your question generating the study, and a brief description of the interviewing method

to be used and the sample to be selected. Be sure that you have a research question and

a brief description of what you expect from your research! In addition, submit the

interview plan (max. 500 words) for your study on a separate sheet: what do you plan to

know and how? Answer to the following questions: what is your approach – and general

plan – for your research project and how do you address issues of essentialism and

intersectionality? How will you employ sex/gender as analytical categories?

Reflection paper (20%)

Write reflection papers (2) about readings for that class of your choice. Ideally it is

connected to your interview excercise but this is not a requirement. The length of your

contribution should be 300-500 words, which means you can only develop one main

point or argument in each reflection paper, supported by evidence and/or examples from

the readings. The paper should be uploaded by Saturday 12.00 CET (noon) before that

class. The class discussion will be structured around those issues mentioned in the

reflection papers. As a praparation for the class students are requested to read the

reflection papers of the others.

Interview exercise (30%)

Record an interview (no longer than 5 (five) minutes) with your computer or phone and

post it on the moodle. Copy the link in the forum on the course site. The interview will

be screened during the class when you are asked to give a short intro and to respond to

the questions by other students. For recording and posting it on youtube see the

following guideline:

http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=57409

You should be submitting supporting documents (transcript, agreements, etc.) to the

moodle.

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Final paper: interview analysis (30%)

Based on the readings of the class write a min. 2000 word-long scholarly essay on the

interview you made discussing theoretical and methodological issues and submit it to

the moodle. Ideally the paper will be using one of the sofwares introduced in this course

but that is not a requirement.

Class participation (10%)

It includes critical reflection on the readings, the assigned videos as well as interviews

uploaded by the participants.

Reading Schedule

Week 1

11 January

Introduction, discussion of the assignments

Introduction to online interview databases available at CEU Library (Ivett Molnar)

Week 2

18 January Oral History: Critical Developments

Portelli, Alessandro (1998) “What Makes Oral History Different” in Perks, R. and

Thomson, A. (eds). The Oral History Reader. London: Routledge. pp. 63-75.

Abrams. Lynn. (2010) “The Peculiarities of Oral History” in Oral History Theory,

Routledge, pp. 18-33.

Thomson, Alistair. (2006) „Four Paradigm Transformations in Oral History”. In Oral

History Review 34 (1) pp. 49–70.

Introduction to qualitative research softwares (Laszlo Csirmaz)

Week 3

25 January Politics of Oral History: Advocacy and Empowerment

Sangster, Joan (1998) “Telling our Stories: Feminist Debates and the Use of Oral

History” in Perks, R. and Thomson, A. (eds). The Oral History Reader. London:

Routledge. pp. 87-100.

Abrams, Lynn. (2010) “Power and Empowerment” in Oral History Theory, Routledge,

pp. 153-175.

Jessee, Erin. (2011) „The Limits of Oral History: Ethics and Methodology amid Highly

Politicized Research Settings” in Oral History Review 38 (2) pp. 287-307.

Week 4

1 February Intersections of social and personal

Scott, Joan (1992) “Experience” in Butler, Judith and Scott, Joan (eds.) Feminists

Theorize the Political. New York and London: Routledge. pp. 22-41.

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Lomsky-Feder, Edna (2004) “Life Stories, War, and Veterans: On the Social

Distribution of Memories” in Ethos 32(1) pp. 82-109.

Summerfield, Penny (2004) „Culture and Composure: Creating Narratives of the

Gendered Self in Oral History Interviews”. Cultural and Social History 1. pp. 65–93.

Week 5

8 February Legal and Ethical Dilemmas

Borland, Katherine (1998) “'That's not What I Said': Interpretative Conflict in Oral

Narrative Research” in Perks, R. and Thomson, A. (eds). The Oral History Reader.

London: Routledge. pp. 310-321.

K’Meyer, Tracy, E. and Crothers, Glenn, A. (2007) “’If I See Some of This in Writing,

I’m Going to Shoot You’: Reluctant Narrators, Taboo Topics, and the Ethical Dilemmas

of the Oral Historian” in The Oral History Review 34(1) pp. 71-93.

Shopes, Linda. (2007) “Legal and Ethical Issues in Oral History” in History of Oral

History: Foundations and Methodology. Charlton, Thomas L., Myers, Lois E. (eds.)

Alta Mira Press, pp. 125-159.

Deadline for uploading your abstract to the moodle is 8 February by noon. (You are

advised to make an appointment before to discuss your plans.)

Week 6

15 February Practicalities

Ritchie, Donald A. (1995) Doing Oral History: Practical Advice and Reasonable

Explanation for Anyone, New York: Twayne. Chapters: “Conducting Interviews”,

“Equipment, Processing, and Legal Concerns”, Ethics from the Oral History

Association

Mazé, Elinor A. (2007) “The Uneasy Page: Transcribing and Editing Oral History” in

History of Oral History: Foundations and Methodology eds. Charlton, Thomas L.,

Myers, Lois E. Alta Mira Press, pp. 227-261.

Hanna, Paul. (2012) “Using Internet Technologies (such as Skype) as a Research

Medium: A Research Note.” in Qualitative Research 12 (2), pp. 239–42.

Week 7

22 February Interviewing: Questions and Questioning

Fontana, Andrea, Frey, James, H. (2003) “Interviewing, The Art of Science” in Denzin,

Norman K., Lincoln, Yvonna S. (eds.) Collecting and Interpreting Qualitative

Materials. London: Sage. pp. 47-78.

Diamond, Lisa M. (2006) “Careful What You Ask For: Reconsidering Feminist

Epistemology and Autobiographical Narrative in Research on Sexual Identity

Development” in Signs 31(2) pp. 471-491.

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Deakin, Hannah, Wakefield, Kelly. (2014) “Skype Interviewing: Reflections of Two

PhD Researchers.” in Qualitative Research 14(5) pp. 603-623.

Week 8

29 February Oral History and Narrativity

Culbertson, Roberta (1995) “Embodied Memory, Transcendence, and Telling:

Recounting Trauma, Re-establishing the Self” in New Literary History 26(1) pp. 169-

195.

Popkin, J. D. (2005) “Narrative Theory, History and Autobiography” in Popkin, J., D.

History, Historians, and Autobiography. Chicago and London: The University of

Chicago Press. pp. 33-56.

Sommer, Doris. (1988) ‘”Not just a Personal Story”: Women’s Testimonies and the

Plural Self’, in Brodzki, Bella and Schenck, Celeste (eds.), Life/lines: Theorizing

Women’s Autobiography. Ithaca, Cornell University Press, pp. 107-30.

Week 9

7 March Deadline for uploading the link to your interview to the moodle by 7th March by noon

Interpreting Memories

Thompson, Paul, The Voice of the Past. Chapter on Evidence pp. 100-148.

Passerini, Luisa (1990) “Mythbiography in Oral History” in Myth We Live By. Samuel,

Raphael Thompson, Paul, (eds.) London, Routledge, pp. 49-60.

Truong, Khiet P., Westerhof, Gerben J., Lamers, Sanne M.A., Jong, Franciska (2014),

“Towards Modeling Expressed Emotions in Oral History Interviews: Using Verbal and

Non-Verban Signals to track Personal Narratives” in Literary and Linguistic

Computing, (29) 4. Pp. 621-636.

Week 10

14 March is a holiday MUC will be announced

Subjectivity and intersubjectivity

Abrams. Lynn. (2010) “Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity” in Oral History Theory,

Routledge, pp. 54-78.

Interview screening and discussion

Week 11

21 March Interview screening and discussion continues (Your informed comments will count in

the participation grade.)

Week12

28 March is a holiday MUC will be announced

Interview screening and discussion continues, summary

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Deadline for uploading the final paper and supporting documents to your interview to

the moodle is 5 April, 12CET (noon)