The Fourteenth Conference of Oral History-2

Oral history concentration on imposed war, the reason for the universities

Compiled by: Maryam Assadi Jafari
Translated by: M.B. Khoshnevisan

2024-5-27

According to the Iranian Oral History Website, the 14^th Oral History Conference titled “Oral History on Scale” was held by the History Department of the University of Isfahan and the Oral History Association of Iran on Tuesday morning, May 14, 2024; professors, experts, and activists of this field participated in this conference which was held in Saeb Tabrizi Amphitheater of the Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Isfahan.

Dr. Morteza Nouraei, a member of the faculty of Isfahan University's History Department and the Scientific Secretary of the conference, began his speech as follows: "What is significant in this period and the ballyhoo of oral history is to evaluate the level of oral history productions and the discussion of scientific and professional authority in a way that Iran's oral history will be less damaged. Oral history is an easy and restrained phenomenon that has fortunes and advantages as well as obstacles. Oral history experts have one sentence: Just do it! Its level is not important and will be evaluated in the future. Data is hidden in different places. Recording levels are not our concern. Of course, this is important, but high-level training will take time, and people who have defended their doctoral dissertations on the subject of oral history are very few. If we wanted to proceed with this thought, it would not be in the inherent principles of oral history. Therefore, it became widespread. Of course, between memoirs and oral memories and oral history, there is a deep sea called the challenge that must be considered in the quality of oral history."

He added, "Oral history is the best way to communicate between generations. Oral history believes it can bridge the generation gap, and it happens easily. In my opinion, history therapy is one of the branches of oral history. Many of our retirees are willing to share their experiences and aspirations. Therefore, oral history is a window for dialogue and they are willing to provide us with their thirty years of experience of serving in administrative systems. Another slogan of oral history is that "everyone should be heard, microphones should be given everywhere, and everyone should have the talent to be in the field of history." You know that history is always written by the upper-class people and as politicians say, we tell lies and historians believe and write. Therefore, the money is in front of you and you pay the writing fees. But the postmodern era deconstructed and this kind of historiography of the modern era collapsed. Modern historiography wandered in the layers of text production and bringing the past into the field of history, which could not be answered in the pluralistic world. For this reason, oral history and additional histories in the 70s and 80s were able to reflect the past in the mirror of the present".

Regarding the past of oral history, Dr. Nouraei pointed out the different level of productions and said: "Sometimes only memories and sometimes all dreams have been extracted. History is the engine of dreams. People, with their own dreams, take the future to the past and write it. What we see now in oral history productions in the country are mostly novels and romances, stories and legends. I for myself do not disagree. Because it is a kind of parallel history and alternative history, but what is supposed to help future historians are the productions that have gone through their interview and technical stages in a guaranteed way. We see works that are at the level of a heartache and at the level of productions that are very cheap, but are very expensive for institutions. This series of productions prompted us to see how much institutions and institutions contract and where is the position of an institution like the Oral History Association? Where can we announce the standards that people will be aware of when writing the contract?

In continuation of his remarks, he talked about the significance of scientific and professional authority in oral history. Earlier, the Iranian Oral History Website has conducted an exclusive interview with Dr. Nouraei in this regard that you can read it here. He then added, " If the interviewers are not trained, problems arise. They sent me 40 interviews with the best people from one of the prestigious institutions in Isfahan. A lot of money was spent on this project. I along with Dr. Abolhasani listened to these interviews for about two or three months, but they continued a linear narration for two hours, and in some places, it was even incomprehensible. When we talked to the interviewer, we realized that the person basically did not know the difference between an oral history interview and a news interview or an oral memoir interview. At least institutions can investigate where the speaker was trained".

Referring to the importance of the research authority of oral history, Dr. Nouraei referred to the book "Methodology and Finding Issues about Urban Studies in Oral History" and stated: "In the fifth oral history conference, I determined 13 positions and 120 subject classifications for oral history which is increasing. In the body of oral history, we have focused more on the sacred defense and the Islamic revolution, and it has not been developed in a systematic way, and it is better to start with the history of families, neighborhoods and mosques. From this point of view, the university has taken the lead and based on the research program of the professors, I have announced my own research on the Majlis (parliament), so that in the core of oral history, we will discuss the oral history of the periodic representatives of the Majlis, as well as the discussion of the bills and approvals of the Majlis, in the post-doctoral stage, but at the end , as an academic person who is supposed to judge the available data, I can say that a lot of money is lost and for classical historians, it cannot be documented. Oral history is the history of the future and therefore, the lost and less noticed data are recorded and delivered in the future. The claim of oral history is not independence, but it is essentially dependent on documented and written history.

In the continuation of the 14th Oral History Conference, Dr. Morteza Dehghan Nejad, a faculty member of Isfahan University's History Department, gave a speech about "the role of universities in the future development of Iranian oral history" and said: "Imagine a world that is moving and growing. Humanities are growing by themselves, and associations are created due to the feeling of need. Oral history also shows events, incidents, and actions of witnesses and observers who are involved in an event. Since we are not able to see an event from different angles, we have to look at the case from one or more angles, although we still don't know if we have understood the whole case or not. Oral history moves around the world to give all the people present in an event a chance to speak. As much as they clarify the story, we can also see the history more clearly. Sometimes, when a politician is in office, he thinks and speaks one way, and when he is removed from that position, he speaks another way and even criticizes himself. Now which narration is true? I think he tells the truth more when he is sitting at home. So maybe we can see when people criticize themselves in the field of oral history. Therefore, a critical look at history from the perspective of oral history makes me feel better."

Dr. Dehghan Nejad pointed out the distance between the third world and the modern world and added: "The event that happened 10 years ago in advanced countries is reaching us with a delay. Because of this, when the first oral history archive was created at Columbia University in 1948, we were still in the early stages. Likewise, in 1954 at the University of California, in 1959 at the University of Oklahoma, and in 1966, the International Oral History Conference is held. Then Australia, Scotland, the Netherlands, Japan and Turkey hosted this conference. It means that it has developed internationally since the Second World War, and of course, if it had not developed, it would not have reached our borders. If Dr. Nouraei had not gone to Britain to continue his studies, we probably would not have any idea about oral history. Whether we like it or not, we have to develop in this area. Of course, there may be obstacles, but historical necessity demands that we definitely go this way, and it would be better if the universities were the pioneers, but it is not possible with specific textbooks and we must move beyond the headline. The International Association of Oral History was formed in 1979 and I hope we will have one of the international meetings in Isfahan University. The University of Sydney in Australia hosted this conference in 2006, but the Iranian universities have not shown any interest in the category of oral history".

Regarding the lack of success of oral history in Iranian universities, he said, "One of the reasons is that oral history is generally limited to the imposed war, and secondly, maybe we don't want to say a series of our words, and thirdly, universities resist against new ideas. The universities should be the leaders and advance the frontiers of knowledge, but the reality is that they oppose every new thought, because it is not easy for them to accept it. Also, the lack of connection with archives is another obstacle for universities to enter the field of oral history."

In the final part of the second part of the "Oral History on the Scale" conference, Dr. Masoud Kassiri, a faculty member of the History Department of Isfahan University, evaluated the view of the universities on the subject of oral history and said: "In line with this issue why no voice is heard from the universities, I tried to raise a series of questions. Since 70 years ago, oral history has been brought up in the world and it has been receiving attention in our country for about 20 years, but our scientific and academic communities are still confused about whether they eventually should value oral history or not. I address this confusion in three questions. If one day we can answer these questions, we will be freed from this confusion.

First question: We have not yet been able to explain to the scientific community and the general public what the nature of oral history is.

Although the answer to this question is in your and my mind, we have not reached a coherent answer to convince the universities.

The second question: Who is in charge of teaching and conducting oral history projects?

This is a question we have not been able to answer yet.

The third question: What are the threats and opportunities of oral history?

He added: "In line with the first question, a series of smaller questions are raised that we must answer as well.

Is oral history a research and does it require research requirements?

This is the most important question we need to answer. Is oral history a narrative? Is it right to simply put the microphone in front of someone to speak and then print the result of the conversation in the form of a book? Or is it a critical or comparative history? Is oral history just a record of lived memories? If so, who are its target groups? Do we consider the actor of history as an individual or not? In oral history, should we go to well-known figures and people who have podiums or should we go to ordinary people? We have not yet answered these questions correctly. Is oral history a type of historiography or a method of document production? If it is a history, we must meet the requirements of the history in it. If history is a research category, it has its own tools, equipment and ways of thinking. What is our mission in oral history? History production or document production? If we answer the question as one type is historiography, I would like to ask what school of historiography does it follow? And if it's just a way to produce a document, is it a technical matter or not? Does it mean it needs teamwork or not? Can one person do the interview alone or should different layers of the team be observed? If we answer these questions, we can say what the nature of oral history is and then expect the academic environment to pay attention to us."

In response to the question "Who is in charge of teaching and conducting oral history projects?" He said: "You and I have gathered together simply because we have read history or we are historians, but oral history is also considered by other groups. Doctors and psychologists are also interested in the category of oral history; not because of the production of history or oral documents, but because of the category of treatment. The first question that a doctor asks his patient is about the history of the disease, which arises through a face-to-face interview. A psychoanalyst definitely needs an interview and an oral history. Hypnotherapists, who treat patients by tapping into their subconscious, are interested in oral histories. History researchers also claim oral history and do this for research. History researchers also claim oral history and do this for research. Is oral history, criticism or oral tradition, or recitation of a narrative? Politicians are another group that is more interested in oral history than others. Politicians provide macro-narratives to justify their ideologies and actions. They use different methods such as: creating a myth, creating a sense of nostalgia, or creating a sense of romanticism, to praise or condemn the past to justify their present. Those who claim to create mental constructions in the direction of future studies or prospective studies pay attention to oral history. We don't just want to predict the future; we want to create it for ourselves as we like it. The major part of futurism is rooted in the past, and for this reason, they engage in oral history and interviews. Different groups of social activists, for protest, revolution, and change, engage in oral history to justify themselves and establish social movements, and Put their ideologies into practice. We will not get anywhere with these claimants who have a lot of money and power unless we clearly answer these questions so that the custodian of the work is determined. 

The continuation of the report on the 14^th Conference of Oral History will be released. 

The Fourteenth Conference of Oral History-1