Oral History: Recording and Preserving Personal Testimony

Oral history is the practice of recording a person’s memories in a planned interview and keeping that recording so that others can learn from it later. This course explains the method step by step for someone who has never done it before.

You will learn what a spoken account can and cannot tell us, how to choose and approach the people you would like to record, how to ask for informed consent, and how to prepare questions and equipment. You will then look at the interview itself: how to listen, how to follow up, and how to respond when a memory is painful. Particular attention is given to families who have been displaced or who now live in several countries. The final module covers the work that follows an interview: transcription, description, safe storage, access, and the rights the narrator keeps over the recording.

The course has four modules of three lessons. Each lesson is a short text with key points and one practical exercise you can do on your own. No equipment beyond a phone or a simple recorder is needed. Respect for the people who share their memories is treated as part of the method throughout.