Department of History Research Workshop ‘Exploring Subjectivity and Emotions in Oral History Interviews’ 

In this workshop for Essex post-graduate students, Professor Penny Summerfield will explore the paradigm shift from ‘eye witness’ and ‘recovery’ approaches to oral history, to engagement with memory, narrative, subjectivity and emotion.

Professor Penny Summerfield will discuss key concepts such as intersubjectivity, the cultural circuit, life review, narrative genre, composure and discomposure, as methodological approaches that help us to engage with subjectivity, emotions and experience in oral history interviews.

In preparation for the workshop, students are recommended (but not required) to read:

• Penny Summerfield, 'Culture and Composure: creating narratives of the gendered self in oral history interviews', Cultural and Social History 2004, 1: pp. 65-93.
• Penny Summerfield, Histories of the Self: personal narratives and historical practice (Routledge, 2019), Chapter 5, 'Oral History and Historical Practice', pp. 106-134.

If you would like to join us, please contact Professor Lucy Noakes on  l.noakes@essex.ac.uk by Monday 2 November.