Gender, Subjectivity and Oral History, University of Warwick, 24 November 2011

The question of how subjective identities are composed in the oral-history interview has been the focus of much recent scholarship. This one-day conference of the Warwick Oral History Network, organized by Angela Davis (Department of History, University of Warwick) and Andrea Hajek (Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick), aimed to reflect upon the current status of the field and address the challenges of the future. Themes considered were the role of gender in the composure of subjective identities; the gendered intersubjectivity of narrator and listener; the influence of class, politics and ethnicity on the formation of subjectivities; and inter and trans-generational memory. A diverse range of papers considered subjects which included parenting as a role and identity, the influence of migration on identities and identity practices, and the experiences of women as activists in 1970s Europe. Penny Summerfield (University of Manchester) set the tone for the day with her keynote lecture ‘Gender, Subjectivity and Oral History: some Reflections on Theory and Practice’. She combined fascinating glimpses into the lives of two Cumbrian women with sharp theoretical insights into the development of oral history as a field; the key issues to address as a researcher; and pathways for the future. The balance between the specific and the general proved very fruitful: on the one hand, discussion of rich and fascinating research findings from a wide range of times and places, and on the other, reflections on methodological and theoretical issues in oral history.

Aesthetics · Art · Ethnic group · Field (mathematics) · Identity (music) · Intersubjectivity · Media studies · Normative · Oral history · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Subjectivity · Tone (literature) · Anthropology · Gender Studies · Law · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies