Call for participants
AAASS 2009 Round Table: Trauma in Oral History -- Oral History as
Trauma?
Oral histories provide invaluable material for scholars, especially in
research concerning topics where records were not kept, were altered or
were lost. The interviewees give unique perspectives based on their
experiences. They can provide factual knowledge as well as impressions,
interpretations and anecdotes.
Yet, when we as scholars ask people about their past lives, what effect
do we and our questions have on these individuals? Is the impact greater
when we inquire about traumatic events? Is recounting the past to a
stranger, and often a foreigner, cathartic, detrimental, helpful to the
individual, or is it in itself traumatic?
If you have done oral histories with people about experiences which were
probably traumatic -- wartime experiences, experiences in the terror or
the gulag, in the siege of Leningrad or other civilian tragedies of war,
deportation, or other traumatic events or environments -- and you have
thoughts, stories or theories concerning the interview process and the
effect of your interviews on these people and their families, please
consider joining this round table discussion.
Please send your name, a brief description of the project in which you
have done such interviews, and a short cv to:
Dr. Suzanne Ament
At [log in to unmask]
Please send your statements by December 30, 2008. I will try to compile
the most diverse panel possible and submit it to AAASS.
Please forward to anyone who would qualify to participate.
I will also be at the AAASS 2008 meeting in Philadelphia, if you would
like to discuss this with me.
Contact:
Dr. Suzanne Ament
Associate Professor of History
Radford University
Radford, VA 24142
(540) 831-5247
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