On April 29, 2014 Dr. Izabella Agardi will give a masterclass on Interviews and Life Narratives (flyer). Dr. Agardi discusses the various ways interviews can be useful for collecting material for gender research in the humanities and social sciences in order to produce better understanding of so far under-researched or missing topics.
How are we as gender studies scholars to deal with all the different levels of information that interviews possess? How shall we look at our own roles, positions and the responsibilities it relates in producing our own account? In other words, how are we to analyze and integrate this specific type of source material into larger stories? How do we put the often-voiced theoretical plea for accountable, transparently intersubjective research into actual practice?
These are crucial questions that anybody grapples with when trying to revise existing histories or ethnographies and so the class will address these important issues.
Dr. Izabella Agardi defended a dissertation based on life narratives & oral history On the Verge of History. Rupture and Continuity in Women’s Life Narratives from Hungary, Romania and Serbia at the Gender Studies Programme of Utrecht University. Her supervisors were Prof. Berteke Waaldijk (UU) and Dr. Andrea Pëto (CEU).
The masterclass will start with an introduction by Dr. Agardi and discussion of readings. The second part will be devoted to students’ and PhD’s work in progress.
Participation: Participation is free and open to both beginning and experienced scholars, PhD students and research master students who want to present short papers or questions & reflections on work in progress (any format) connected to this theme.
Participants are especially invited to submit short contributions on
a) their interviews with individuals or groups and reflections & questions on grappling with the interview situation
b) methodological issues: reflections and questions on ways of writing stories of individuals or groups; the search for alternative ways of telling history in different contexts into larger narratives.
Deadline for registration: Tuesday April 22, 2014 by sending a one-page description of your possible contribution to nog@uu.nl (mentioning ‘Interviews and Life Narratives’ in the subject).
