Listening to Scientists’ Stories: Using the British Library's “An Oral History of British Science” Archive

Collections ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-170
Author(s):  
Ruth Wainman
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Oral History ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
British Science ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insight Into

The British Library's “An Oral History of British Science” (OHBS) was created in 2009 to address the dearth of oral history archives in the United Kingdom dedicated to capturing the personal experiences of British scientists. This article examines the implications of using an oral history archive from the perspective of a historian of science to write about scientists’ identities during their doctoral research. The advantages of using life history interviews to explore scientists’ stories are situated within the longer historiographical trajectories of oral history and the history of science. In addition, this article reflects on the process of using a recent oral history archive that has not only allowed for an almost unprecedented access into the personal and working lives of recent scientists but also afforded a greater insight into the creation and aims of the OHBS itself.

Oral History of Science: A Mushrooming Cloud?

1988 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Weiner
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
History Of

Russell McCormmach as a teacher

2007 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 453-462
Author(s):  
Finn Aaserud
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
Human Being ◽  
General Sense ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
Johns Hopkins University ◽  
Personal Tribute ◽  
History Of

The author gives a personal tribute of Russell McCormmach as a scholar and a person. From 1972 to 1976, McCormmach's writings, notably his introductions to the HSPS, served as unique inspiration for the author's .rst grapplings with the history of science in far-away Norway. From 1976 to 1984 the author was a student at Johns Hopkins University, with McCormmach as dissertation adviser until he left Hopkins in 1983. Because the doctoral research was carried out for the most part in Scandinavia, McCormmach's advice is to a great extent preserved in personal letters, which are quoted at some length. Ever since, the author and McCormmach have maintained a close, if sporadic, relationship. While his approach is personal, the author hopes to convey a general sense of McCormmach's unique qualities as a writer, editor and teacher, as well as a human being.

Introduction

1965 ◽  
Vol 8 (02) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Gwendolen M. Carter
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Political Movements ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Carnegie Corporation ◽  
Northwestern University ◽  
History Of

One of the major, largely untapped sources for historical and social science research in Africa is the firsthand knowledge of Africans who were closely associated with the formation and life history of early political movements. At a conference held in February 1965 at Northwestern University, the Program of African Studies, with the assistance of the Carnegie Corporation, a number of scholars in the African field agreed in the course of a three-day meeting that it is particularly urgent to undertake a systematic canvass of these sources of information on the earliest nationalist movements in African countries. The conference stressed the importance of moving rapidly to make use of such firsthand data in helping to fill a major gap in our information about African responses to European intrusion. Not only is the material all that is available on the movements but it is rapidly disappearing (a fact underlined by the death of Dr. Danquah during the time the conference was meeting). In addition, the conference carefully examined the problems involved in such oral history retrieval.

Beyond the Locker Room: Campus Bars and College Athletes

1998 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Jon Curry
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
College Athletes ◽  
Sexual Misconduct ◽  
Male Bonding ◽  
Male Athletes ◽  
What Is Said ◽  
Locker Room ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Insight Into

This paper extends the research conducted on male bonding in locker rooms to another well-known but under-researched site, the campus bar. Through a life history of a former athlete, we learn about the connection between what is said in the locker room and behavior outside. We also gain insight into the role campus bars play in facilitating aggression and sexual misconduct by male athletes.

Working Lives: An Oral History of Rhode Island Labor

1989 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 348
Author(s):  
Paul M. Buhle ◽  
Paul Buhle ◽  
Scott Malloy ◽  
Gail Sansbury
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
History Of

Introduction: The Evolution of Oral History

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald A. Ritchie
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Samuel Johnson ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
New Yorker ◽  
Greenwich Village ◽  
Standard Procedures ◽  
Digital Recorder ◽  
History Of ◽  
Insight Into

Oral history is as old as the first recorded history and as new as the latest digital recorder. Long before the practice acquired a name and standard procedures, historians conducted interviews to gain insight into great events, beginning at least as early as Thucydides, who used oral history for his account of the Peloponnesian wars. In the eighteenth century, Samuel Johnson commented that “all history was at first oral,” but the term “oral history” was first used in reference to troubadours and oral traditions. However, the study of oral history was taken up seriously only during the twentieth century. Oral history did not attach itself to interviewing until an article appeared in the New Yorker in 1942 about Joe Gould, a Greenwich Village bohemian who claimed to be compiling “An Oral History of Our Time”. This article further discusses the importance of oral history projects and oral historians at the same time.

Oral History: Media, Message, and Meaning

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clifford M. Kuhn
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Digital Revolution ◽  
The Past ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
History Of ◽  
Media Message ◽  
The City

An immense transformation in oral history and media has taken place over the past few decades. This article draws largely upon personal experiences in culminating media, message, and meaning along with the study of oral history. This article looks at experiences in interviewing people and how memories can be juxtaposed in combining oral history. To convey something of the orality and subjectivity of a radio series, this article also intersperses thirteen longer “profiles,” extended interview excerpts with people found especially informative and illuminating, and whose stories did not always fit neatly within the larger narrative. Living Atlanta: An Oral History of the City, 1914–1948, published in 1990 is referred to for conveying message and meaning. The advent of the digital revolution by the early 1990s helped spur a resurgence of interest. The plethora of oral history–based media initiatives is astounding which is still mushrooming.

scholarly journals Another Participant's view on Dutch Archaeology in Postwar Times

1994 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leendert P. Louwe Kooijmans
Keyword(s):  
History Of Science ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Personal View ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
History Of ◽  
Anthropological Approach ◽  
Participant Observer

In my opinion, Slofstra's description of the recent developments in Dutch archaeology can be characterized as a rather subjective narratio of a small episode in the history of science by a participant observer. It is only in the last sentence of his paper that he – rather obligatorily – acknowledges his position. Primarily, the article is a compilation of personal experiences, memories and convictions based on a thorough study of the literature, but lacking interviews with the principal characters. It is very much a private account, even to such an extent that it would not be difficult for anyone involved in Dutch archaeology to point out the author. The paper tells us as much about Slofstra as about the history of archaeology and presents a very personal view on the development of our discipline: the disqualification of the cultural-historical approach persisting into the eighties, the myth of the deliverance by the ‘Historical-Anthropological Approach’, together with the uncritical reiteration of the greatness of Van Giffen, and the ‘conspiracy scenario’ towards the ‘academic establishment’ which can retard everything except demographical processes.

scholarly journals O Ensino de Ciência do Sistema Terra e os caminhos da Biologia: uma história

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 3
Author(s):  
Maurilio Antonio Ribeiro Alves ◽  
Pedro Wagner Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Science Teaching ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Favorable Conditions

ResumoO artigo mostra a importância das atividades e atitude de pesquisa diante da natureza, da Biologia, do ensino e dos alunos. O objetivo principal é revelar a trajetória de um bom professor e os aspectos cruciais de sua formação continuada. Adotamos uma combinação de abordagens metodológicas etnográficas fortemente apoiadas na história oral de vida. O alvo mais amplo do texto é inspirar professores para considerarem a pesquisa como parte integrante da sua formação. Além disso, é um exemplo de como a História da Ciência favorece a reflexão sobre o ensino e colabora na formação continuada de professores.Palavras-chave: História da Ciência; Ensino de Ciências; História oral de vida.AbstractThis paper shows up the importance of research activities and attitude on front of nature, biological subjects, teaching and pupils. The main aim is to show up a positive way of one teacher of science and to reveal key pieces of teacher education. We adopt the set of methodologies support on oral history of life. The wider target concerns to inspirit teachers to evaluate how the research can be part of the teacher education. Moreover, that is an example how history of science creates the favorable conditions to reflect on teaching and help to do links with teacher education.Keywords: History of Science; Teaching of Science; Oral History of Life.

scholarly journals Analysis of the book Judo: path of medals, by Alexandre Velly Nunes

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Augusto Trusz
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
Olympic Games ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Doctoral Research ◽  
History Of

<p>This review presents the book <em>Judô</em><em>: caminho das medalhas</em>, written by PhD Professor Alexandre Velly Nunes, published in Brazilian Portuguese in 2013 by Kazuá. This work comes from the doctoral research of the author, who interviewed about 90 personages from the history of Brazilian judo in four years of studies. The objective was to present the origins of this sport in the country based on the oral history of the life of Brazilian athletes, who were medalists in World Championships and Olympic Games, and their <em>sensei</em>. I make a brief presentation of the author and summarize the contents of the book, followed by my comments and conclusion.</p>

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