MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Event

Jun 27, 2023
A Little Bit Different from Oral History? The Historiographic Realm of Research Interviews in History of Science and Medicine

The genre “research interview” is understood in a variety of ways in different fields, ranging from history to the social sciences. Especially experts in oral history have dedicated thoughts and debates on this genre. As opposed to the social sciences with strong theoretical and methodological approaches to qualitative data and oral history focusing strongly on social history based on theoretical and analytical concepts, experts in history of science and medicine have debated oral history in general and research interviews in particular repeatedly since at least the early 1990s. In April 1994 at a workshop at Stanford University dedicated to “Interviews in Writing the History of Recent Science,” Ronald J. Grele, made a basic distinction between the “research interview” and the “archival interview,” both aimed at different audiences. As the historian of science Lillian Hoddeson explicated when citing Grele, “archival interviews” are also created for research purposes nevertheless (Hoddeson, 2006). Although there is doubtlessly an overlapping zone between these two genres, it seems relevant to create a working definition of what is to be address with the term “research interview” for methodological and historiographical reflections on this interview type. 

This workshop brought together a group of people explicitly interested in the broader topic of how we use research interviews in our scholarship. The group has emerged from several points and from several questions: how to write about research interviews, how to reflect on our epistemologies regarding interviews and off-record information, and how to account for the various forms of knowledge and trust that are generated in the process of arranging, conducting, and archiving interviews.

References:

Lillian Hoddeson: The Conflict of Memories and Documents. Dilemmas and Pragmatics of Oral History. In: Ronald Edmund Doel, and Thomas Söderqvist (eds.): The Historiography of Contemporary Science, Technology, and Medicine: Writing Recent Science. London ; New York: Routledge 2006, 187–200, 199.

Guests (past & future)

Past

Prof. Dra. Edna Suárez-Díaz, Estudios de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (S&TS), Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, Mexico

June 19–30, 2023

Future

Prof. emeritus Karl Matlin, PhD, University of Chicago & Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, MA)

January 14–28, 2024

Guest of Hanna Lucia Worliczek, collaborative work on book project “Molecularizing Microscopic Imaging” and  contribution in research therapy, Jan. 16, 2024.

Organizer(s)
Related Project(s)
Contact and Registration

 This workshop was by invitation only.

2023-06-27T00:00:00SAVE IN I-CAL 2023-06-27 00:00:00 2023-06-27 00:00:00 A Little Bit Different from Oral History? The Historiographic Realm of Research Interviews in History of Science and Medicine The genre “research interview” is understood in a variety of ways in different fields, ranging from history to the social sciences. Especially experts in oral history have dedicated thoughts and debates on this genre. As opposed to the social sciences with strong theoretical and methodological approaches to qualitative data and oral history focusing strongly on social history based on theoretical and analytical concepts, experts in history of science and medicine have debated oral history in general and research interviews in particular repeatedly since at least the early 1990s. In April 1994 at a workshop at Stanford University dedicated to “Interviews in Writing the History of Recent Science,” Ronald J. Grele, made a basic distinction between the “research interview” and the “archival interview,” both aimed at different audiences. As the historian of science Lillian Hoddeson explicated when citing Grele, “archival interviews” are also created for research purposes nevertheless (Hoddeson, 2006). Although there is doubtlessly an overlapping zone between these two genres, it seems relevant to create a working definition of what is to be address with the term “research interview” for methodological and historiographical reflections on this interview type.  This workshop brought together a group of people explicitly interested in the broader topic of how we use research interviews in our scholarship. The group has emerged from several points and from several questions: how to write about research interviews, how to reflect on our epistemologies regarding interviews and off-record information, and how to account for the various forms of knowledge and trust that are generated in the process of arranging, conducting, and archiving interviews. References: Lillian Hoddeson: The Conflict of Memories and Documents. Dilemmas and Pragmatics of Oral History. In: Ronald Edmund Doel, and Thomas Söderqvist (eds.): The Historiography of Contemporary Science, Technology, and Medicine: Writing Recent Science. London ; New York: Routledge 2006, 187–200, 199. Guests (past & future) Past Prof. Dra. Edna Suárez-Díaz, Estudios de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (S&TS), Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, Mexico June 19–30, 2023 Future Prof. emeritus Karl Matlin, PhD, University of Chicago & Marine Biological Laboratory (Woods Hole, MA) January 14–28, 2024 Guest of Hanna Lucia Worliczek, collaborative work on book project “Molecularizing Microscopic Imaging” and  contribution in research therapy, Jan. 16, 2024. Alfred FreebornHanna Lucia Worliczek Alfred FreebornHanna Lucia Worliczek Europe/Berlin public