Oral history testimony is valuable not because it gives unmediated access to the past, but because it shows how people actively make sense of their lives in relation to the historical narratives available to them. There are three key areas we orientate towards within this theme: 

• Marginalised voices and counter-narratives 

• Political memory and activism 

• Trauma and difficult history 

Dr Jack Hepworth analyses memory among Irish republican communities in the post-Good Friday context. Dr Wendy Rickard’s HIV project asks whose testimony gets archived and what that means for how future generations will understand the HIV-AIDS epidemic. The Iraqi partnership addresses the challenges of recording and archiving historical memory in challenging post-war circumstances. 

Relevant projects

Current:

Disrupted Narratives, Exposed Voices: A Global Analysis of HIV Oral History & Its Public Dissemination

Introducing Oral History into Iraqi Higher Education Research & Teaching

Caring Communities

AHRC-Funded PhD: A History of Augmentative & Alternative Communication (AAC)

Past:

Deindustrial Pasts & Present Inequalities

We Made Ships

Consultancy on 'Roma Stories' NHLF Project