Participants wanted: Black Heritage in Hampshire
This post has been authored by Dr Helen Paul (Economics) and Dr Gillian Kennedy (Politics) at the University of Southampton.
Black communities have been resident in Hampshire for centuries. Local community organisations, such as Black History Month South and Black Archives South, have done important work to record these histories and bring them to a wider public. One way to do this is by interviewing people in the Black community as part of an oral history project. This has been done successfully in the past. We aim to interview more people about their lives in Hampshire (sign up information below). Using that material, and with the interviewees permission, we will create a series of public projects. This might include a podcast and an exhibition to showcase how Black people have contributed to Hampshire and to record their lived experiences. We would then deposit the material in a suitable archive.
There are three main strands of the project:
A) The railways and Hampshire
We would like to interview people from the Black community who have worked on the railways or have a significant connection to the railway network.
B) Protest movements
We would like to interview people from the Black community who have been involved in protest movements. For instance, have you travelled up to London for a big event?
C) Open Category
FAQs
1) Who can take part?
People of African and/or Caribbean heritage who are or have been resident in Hampshire. You must be over the age of 18 years old.
2) Who is funding this project?
The Centre for the South and Research England.
3) What use will you make of the recorded interviews?
We will only make use of the interviews with the written permission of the interviewee. For instance, an interviewee can elect to be anonymous. We are planning to create a podcast, exhibition, and research article. We are bound by the research ethics policy of the University of Southampton.
4) Who will be doing the interviewing?
University of Southampton academic staff or volunteers from the Black community. In any case, the interviewer will have received training in Oral History work which includes covering ethical issues.
5) Will the interviewees’ personal details be made public?
The people we interview will be able to choose whether their full names are made public or whether they would prefer to be known by a) a pseudonym, b) a first name only or c) to be fully anonymous.
6) How will you anonymise a recorded interview?
We will give each interview a code. This code will refer to a particular person. The interviews can then be made available to the public, but the coding document will not be available.
7) What will happen to the recordings when you are finished with your project?
We plan to deposit them in an archive. We are currently in discussion with the Hampshire Record Office to donate them to the Wessex Film and Sound Archives. This will ensure that they are properly looked after.
8) Can interviewees stop the archive from making their recording available?
An interviewee can insist that the recordings are not made public at all. We would suggest that it would be better to a) anonymise the material and, if necessary, b) apply an embargo on the material for a set number of years, e.g., 20 years.
9) Who are the University of Southampton staff members who are running the project?
We are Dr Gillian Kennedy (Politics) and Dr Helen Paul (Economics).
If you wish to write to us by post, then please address your letter to:
Dr Gillian Kennedy
Department of Politics
University of Southampton
Southampton
SO17 1BJ
10) What is the University of Southampton’s policy on research ethics?
You can read the policy in full by following this link: University Ethics Policy | University of Southampton
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