New Directions in Queer Oral History

Clare Summerskill gained her doctorate from Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her research interests include the ethics of verbatim theatre processes and the role of the contributor in such productions. She works as a visiting lecturer at various UK universities and she is also a playwright, oral historian, and stand-up comedian.

Amy Tooth Murphy is a lecturer in oral history at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her research interests include British post-war lesbian history; oral history theory and method; butch/femme cultures and identities; and lesbian literature. Her current research project is an exploration of butch lived experience and identity from 1950 to present.

Emma Vickers is a senior lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK. She specialises in queer British history and is the author of Queen and Country: Same-sex Desire in the British Armed Forces, 1939-1945 (2013). She is interested in the intersection between psychotherapy and oral testimony.

This comprehensive international collection reflects on the practice, purpose, and functionality of queer oral history, and in doing so demonstrates the vibrancy and innovation of this rapidly evolving field.

Drawing on the roots of oral history's original commitment to "history from below" queer oral history has become an indispensable methodology at the heart of queer studies. Expanding and extending the existing canon, this book offers up key observations about queer oral history as a methodology, and how it might be advanced through cutting edge approaches. The collection contains a mix of contributions from established scholars, early career researchers, postgraduate students, archivists, and activists, ensuring its accessibility and wide appeal.

The go-to reference for queer oral history for scholars, undergraduate and postgraduate students, and community-engaged practitioners, New Directions in Queer Oral History advances rigorous methodological and theoretical debates and constitutes a significant intervention in the world of oral history.

This comprehensive international collection reflects on the practice, purpose and functionality of queer oral history, and in doing so, demonstrates the vibrancy and innovation of this rapidly evolving field. It is ideal for queer oral history for scholars, undergraduate and postgraduate students, and community-engaged practitioners.

Foreword Introduction: Archives of Disruption Part 1: Narrating LGBTQ Histories: Presence, Absence, and the Space Between 1. (Un)speakable Pasts: Reflections on Working at the Edges of Queer Oral History 2. Locating Lesbians, Finding "Gay Women," Writing Queer Histories: Reflections on Oral Histories, Identity, and Community Memory 3. Queer Intergenerational Reticence: A Religious Case Study 4. Reading Both Ways: Lesbian Oral Histories and Bisexual Visibility 5. Finding "Evidence of Me" Through "Evidence of Us": Transgender Oral Histories and Personal Archives Speak 6. Destabilising Identities and Normative Narratives: The Methodological Challenges of Navigating Oral History Interviews with LGBTQ+ Children of Holocaust Survivors Part 2: Re/making Meaning: Navigating Discourse, Composure and Intersubjectivity 7. Beyond Composure and Discomposure in a Shifting Queer Identity Narrative 8. "Fuck the Gay Movement": Dissemblance and Desire in a Black AIDS Oral History 9. Unfinished Business: Documenting Australian Lesbian Feminism 10. Bisexual Women's Storytelling and Community-building in Toronto 11. Filling the Boxes in Ourselves: Conducting a Queer Oral History of Bisexuality and Multiple-gender-attraction Part 3: Making a Queer Mess: Embodiment, Affect and Exceeding Our Limits 12. Towards a Queer-chronology: Telling Stories in the Queer/Ed Archives 13. "I Gotta Go": Mobility as a Queer Methodology 14. LGBTIQ Activism and "Insider" Interviewing: Reflecting on Oral Histories from the Campaign for Australian Marriage Equality 15. In Search of Queer Composure: Queer Temporality, Intimacy and Affect Part 4: Negotiating Identity: Sharing Authority in Creative Practice 16. Dry Your Eyes, Princess: Oral Testimony and Photography - A Case Study 17. "It's Telling Your Story to Your Family": Why Positionality Matters When Interviewing an Older Lesbian for a Verbatim Play 18. An Army of Listeners: Interviewing Lesbians as a Practice of Liberation for All 19. "Free to Be Me": Oral History Research with Lesbians and Bisexual Women Seeking Asylum in the UK