Hi all,
I am a second year undergraduate student studying history. Although it is early days yet, I am beginning to think of concepts and ideas for a potential topic for my fourth year dissertation. The dissertation (if it is going to be on the subject I currently want it to be on) will be covering a relatively modern era, which means many of its survivors/inhabitants are still alive.
My question is this: is it acceptable to conduct interviews with these people (whilst recognising their biases etc.) for said dissertation? Or is it too academically unprofessional (for lack of a better term)?
Many thanks, and apologies id this question is tedious.
Many university history departments have sanctioned oral history projects. You might inquire of your department if they have one and could perform your interviews using their protocols, file your interviews with them and make them a part of the university's collection. This would also make your footnote references much easier and look more professional.
I know two postgraduate historians at my uni (Exeter, in the UK) who are doing their PhDs on the basis of oral history interviews. My friend also did his undergrad dissertation (on the Troubles in NI) based on a lot of testimony from former soldiers and intelligence officers.
As always, check with your faculty first, but based on my admittedly anecdotal evidence, you should be fine as long as you acknowlege the inherent biases and weaknesses of oral testimony.