Professor Lynn Abrams, in her work Oral History Theory, illuminates what she calls crisis oral history. This “significant sub-genre in oral history practice,” she explains, includes “the collection and analysis of histories of extreme human experiences [that] offer a way of deepening understanding of events and experiences that have had such profound consequences” on people. …
Monthly Archives: October 2025
My Method, Man
After weeks of learning theory, it’s time to begin fashioning my own method for conducting oral history interviews. Scholarship from leading oral historians like Lynn Abrams, Michael Frisch, Jeremy Brecher, and Alessandro Portelli will inform my multidisciplinary methodology. C. Joyer categorizes oral history interviews as “communicative events.” (Abrams, 16). They take place in real time …
Applying Theory, to Listening and Cooperative Memory-Making
Lynn Abrams, in her work Oral History Theory, demonstrates what makes an oral history interview a unique historical document. The distinction lies in the practice, during the interview. Abrams describes the interview “is a communicative event,” where the worlds – or “subjectivities” – of the interviewer and subject/narrator collide. (p. 10). Analyzing oral history interviews …
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