The 11th meeting of Iranian oral history to be held in February 2017

Compilation in Oral History

Translated by M. B. Khoshnevisan

2016-12-11

The 11^th Meeting of Iranian Oral History entitled “The National Conference of Compilation in Oral History” will be held in February 2017, the website of Iranian oral history said.

“This is the second conference of oral history compilation. Our expectations were not met in the seventh meeting held under the title of compilation. Thus, we deal with the issue in the 11^th meeting”, the Executive Secretary of the conference, Gholam Reza Azizi said.

Regarding way of information for receiving the works, he said, “First, we sent a call for the friends who were present in the previous meeting. Then, we announced another call publically in the website of the Research Center of the National Library and Archive of Islamic Republic of Iran. We hope that the conference can achieve a good result.”

About the number of received works, Azizi said, “We have just received four articles which are being reviewed.”

“Although the deadline for receiving the articles had been fixed until 4^th of January 2017, it may be extended. But the meeting will be held on 26^th of February 2017”, he added.

The Executive Secretary of the 11^th Meeting of Iranian Oral History explained, “Since the release of oral history interviews has been intensified and continued, various methods for their compilation come to the mind. Therefore, it is necessary to talk about the methods and their weak and strong points in a way that the researchers recognize the weak and strong points of the works and achieve a proper pattern through their comparison while they can become more familiar with the methods. However, this is the subject of my own article. If we can determine clear rules, the interested people will be able to select this method or other methods or at least they can be informed of the work of each other in order to find out the weak and strong pints and advance knowingly and with full recognition. For instance, if they edit, they should know to what extent they are allowed.”

Azizi continued, “It has not still been compiled in my mind to what extent we are allowed legally to tamper with the memoirs and determine the patterns and achieve compiled theoretical debates. Or for instance, there is a concern that where the compilation is started from? Before or after interview? Where does the geography of compilation come from? For example, I think compilation starts from the beginning of the interview. In my view, a plan for conducting an interview is a plan for compilation. Through the questions you ask, you guide the interviewee on the basis of your own thinking line. So compilation starts from the very beginning of the interview. Many of my friends have the same view. I mean compilation starts from the moment you start interviewing.”      

About the works which both the interviewer and compiler have, He said, “I don’t say this is wrong. This is one of the methods. But if the compiler takes notes or asks questions, will he or she take the same notes or ask the same questions?! So, there can be different methods each of which has no advantage or weakness over other method.”

Call for the 11^th meeting

In continuation of the series of meetings and oral history expert workshops and for the development of theoretical and applied debates of oral history in the area of compilation, the Research Center of the National Library and Archive of Islamic Republic of Iran with the collaboration of the Association for Iranian Oral History and cooperation of Iranian Association of History, the Association for Female Researchers of History, the Association for Iranian Local History and other educational-scientific associations, will hold the National Conference of Compilation in Oral History on 26^th of February 2017.

Experts, historians, researchers, university professors and the interested people in oral history issues are invited to send their articles to the conference’s secretariat in the following grounds:

1. The role of oral sources in contemporary historiography
2. Pre-study geography and setting a questioning package in compilation
3. Interviewer and the executive plan of compilation
4. Criticizing and reviewing of information obtained from interviews
5. Editing of the texts of interviews
6. Styles and typology of compilation
7. Status of compiler in republication of oral history resources
8. Organizing of interview resources
9. Publication of oral history resources
10. Local documents and compilation in regional oral history
11. Mechanism of compilation in oral history of photos and films
12. Legal system in compilation
13. Other issues related to compilation in oral history

It is worth mentioning that the selected article will be published in the form of collection of articles in the conference's scientific workgroup and top articles will be appreciated.

Please send your articles in Word 2007 until 4^th of January 2017 to the following e-mail address: a2a@nlai.ir. The author or authors' profile, the job status, position, fax and phone numbers should be sent along with the article.

So far, ten meetings in the area of oral history have been held. The report about the tenth meeting can be read in the website of Iranian Oral History.