Ethics and Oral History
Time: 2025-09-19 09:00 - 10:30
Location: Seminar room at Auditorium Maximum
Chairman: Outi Fingerroos
Events within this Session
Rethinking Ethics: The Past, Present and Future of a Sámi Folklore and Oral History Collection
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 09:00 - 10:30
Abstract
In our paper we will examine past, present and future challenges regarding the ethical and responsible use of the Talvadas / Dálvadas collection at the Archives of the School of History, Culture and Arts Studies (SHCAS) at the University of Turku, Finland. The collection is one of the worlds’ largest archival collection of Sámi folklore and oral history. The collection consists of 1200 hours of sound, 1400 photographs and slides as well as manuscripts, fieldwork diaries and other materials. The collection was born out of a groundbreaking fieldwork project lead by Professor of Folkloristics and Comparative Religion Lauri Honko in 1967-1975, which included the archiving of all research material systematically for later use. Later on, new material has been added to the collection by researchers, who have in addition to their own interviews used the original material in their studies. In addition, to the revival of Sámi cultural heritage, the collection offers exceptional research material for researchers interested in Sámi culture, history and Sámi languages and dialects as well as family historians. Today a major part of the collection has been digitized. However, due to data protection (GDPR) and the Ethical guidelines for research involving the Sámi people in Finland (2024), these materials cannot be freely and openly accessed. This applies especially to the oral history interviews, which include traditional knowledge and cultural heritage produced and shared collectively. Up to now the collection has not been subject to repatriation claims from the Sámi community. On the contrary, the representatives of the Sámi community even supported the nomination of the Talvadas / Dálvadas collection to the Finnish national register of the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme in September 2024, but will the situation stay the same in the future? What kind of reactions will the nomination cause in the wider Sámi community? How can these be resolved?
Speakers
Being a Good Scholar or a Good Person? Shared/Sharing Authority and the Practice of Taking Scholarship for Granted
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 09:00 - 10:30
Abstract
What is the place of scholarship in oral history? What knowledge do scholarly oral historians contribute to oral history and our democratic societies? This paper is based on an article published in Oral History 2024 (Volume 52, No1, s.57-68) where I explore these fundamental questions through a re-reading of articles focusing on shared/sharing authority, and via conversations with three Swedish scholars, representing three generations of oral historians. In the article I argue that scholarship have been taken for granted, by myself and others. For the past fifty years, many of us have prioritized democratising, deconstructing and decolonising rather than developing and defending scholarship. In a way you could say that we have fallen into the trap of populism that many oral historians warned us about, striving to be good persons instead of good scholars, and reinforcing the dichotomy of the two instead of deconstructing it. This also means that we have placed oral history, the humanities and social sciences in a vulnerable situation. I argue, it is high time to make visible the place of oral history scholarship not only in oral history but in society. The paper fits well into the overall theme of the conference – re-thinking oral history – but will focus on how oral history scholarship in a polarized and geopolitical uncertain world need to focus on academic values. I argue that as oral history scholars, taking a stand for academic values and academic freedom, is the most important political statement we can make today. It is also morally something that should be expected if we believe that scholarly knowledge and academic values are important. Therefore, we also need to make visible what kind of knowledge we have and what we contribute with to our societies.
Speakers
Healing Conversation? The Impact of In-Depth Repeated Oral History Interviews on Interviewees, their Descendants, and Society
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 09:00 - 10:30
Abstract
Based on thirty years of work with the oral history method and repeated interviews with Holocaust survivors in Slovakia, I reflect on the oral history interview as a process that can be healing and transformative for both the interviewees themselves and their descendants. The interviews represent empathic, sensitive communication in a safe, accepting space where vulnerability and insecurity can be expressed. They are the first step toward a possible healing process (Laub and Auerhanh, 1989). Can we speak of a healing process in Slovak society today? Have survivors’ stories contributed to the fact that the Holocaust is considered a cultural trauma in Slovak society (Smelser, 2004)?
Speakers
Diary of Three War Years: Ethics and Interviews with Ukrainian War Refugees
Type: session | Language: English
Time: 09:00 - 10:30
Abstract
This paper is an attempt to share the ethical considerations grown in the soul of an oral historian whose professional standards have been challenged by a unique opportunity. Since Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian war refugees have crossed the Czech borders and sought refuge in our country. Czechs showed an unprecedented willingness to help, feed and house the war refugees and the author of the paper was one of them. The form of a written diary was chosen as best suited to the author’s aims and contributing in this way to the hidden aspects of oral history that are not usually presented to an audience, a kins of oral history off the record (Sheftel- Zembrzycki, 2013). The paper, in the form of a written diary, depicts the ethical challenges of the oral historian, triggered by the paradoxical situation where potential partners for interviews are present at almost every turn (and the author’s knowledge of Russian and her enthusiasm for learning the Ukrainian language may have facilitated this), yet they cannot be approached and invited to give an interview. The contribution focuses on the reasons of these biases. As a result, the paper puts under question the limits of conventional oral history and invites us to modify our traditional approach to it. Extreme situations require flexible approaches that need to be rethought and incorporated into conventional oral history practices.