My process for interviewing for my oral history project can be split up into 6 phases: finding out how oral histories are done, finding out who my narrator will be, researching my narrator, creating questions that will get insightful answers, scheduling the interview and finally completing the interview.
Reading the oral history guide provided in class, I found out what type of questions to ask, what to consider for my narrator and how to present myself as a student of the ROH project. After confirming my narrator, I began researching them. This research led me to their social media, dissertations, bios on multiple sites and platforms, and their resume.
After knowing everything I could possibly get from an outsider’s perspective, I created my questions with the context of what I can see from the outside and I want to find out what’s the insider perspective. When I was satisfied with these questions, I scheduled their interview and met with them.
The biggest insight I got from this was that what’s written down is not the entire story and there’s some details that can be left out that might be important. A book with words doesn’t give someone’s first hand experience justice on the level of depth and insight that can be truly captured. I made sure that each question showed that there was an interest in what they’ve done but also who they are which is important to convey that I’m looking at them as a human and not a research topic. The biggest challenge that I encountered was not knowing if I asked deep enough questions. Because I wouldn’t know which question would get a shallow answer, I had a hard time finding out what would give me the best answer to document.
