Where do we fit? Reflections on research interview practice, project design, and interpretation

What is special about historical research interviews in history of science and medicine, and how do they compare to the tools of oral historians and social scientists? This essay reflects on three interview projects I have undertaken, each taking a distinct shape. I address methodological and pragmatic aspects of these projects, especially concerns to do with anonymity and recovering memories of practice, as well as institutional challenges for placing historical research interviews among the more familiar and structured projects in the social sciences, notably around questions of anonymity. I suggest that we have most to learn from oral historians in thinking about research ethics and empowering the interviewee to decide what they want to happen to the recording and transcript, and whether and how they want to claim credit. At the same time, we can make different choices when it comes to designing, interpreting and publishing our interviews. I suggest it may be beneficial to think of our work as triangulation across sources, within broader practices of what we might call “historical fieldwork.”