Editors' Introduction

Listening to an audio interview can create a disembodied experience, as if eavesdropping on a private conversation with invisible participants, with the voice serving as the primary mode of creating meaning. This aurality of oral history is important; yet the physicality of the interview context is significant as well. Each interview occurs situated in a physical space, perhaps an office filled with the accoutrements of daily life—photos of family and friends, books and journals piled high on desks and on overstuffed shelves, a menagerie of objects representing both fond and now-forgotten memories. Or perhaps the interview space is a sterile studio, creating a blank slate removed from day-to-day distractions. Sometimes we conduct our interviews in homes littered with life, sometimes in shared spaces that have meaning for both the interviewer and the interviewee, sometimes in a place that is more shelter from a storm than anything else, and sometimes in a place of work. Where we are when we conduct interviews influences the ways in which interviewees experience their own life histories and it informs and effects the questions we ask.

All of the authors in the opening section of this issue of the journal speak to the situatedness of our practice, as well as explore the ethical, social, and cultural complexities of interviewing those in specific spaces or who have migrated or been forced to move to new ones. In her work with refugees whose life circumstances have been radically altered, Lindsay French seeks to understand how stories come to be and the ways in which our methodologies allow us to see beyond individual narratives. Hannah Gill, Jaycie Vos, Laura Villa-Torres, and Maria Ramirez reflect on their project, New Roots/Nuevas Raíces, sharing how they developed and deployed digital technologies to facilitate sharing oral histories conducted with migrants. These technologies allow migrant participants to connect with family and friends back home, as well as inform others about their experiences. Elizabeth Melton tackles the question of what it means when a researcher goes home, and the ways in which a "hometown ethnography" highlights the relevance of place, both to local residents and external researchers. And Lynn Schler addresses the physicality of the settings in which we conduct interviews, using her interviews with seamen from Lagos, Nigeria, to explore how those settings frame our work.

Inspired by a panel at a recent meeting of the Oral History Association, guest editor for our special section on pedagogy, Anna Sheftel, collaborated with Lu Ann Jones, Henry Greenspan, and Leyla Neyzi to discuss the "messiness" of teaching oral history both in workshops and in the classroom. Jones details the ways in which she has constructed and run numerous training workshops for the National Park Service and considers the role of workshops generally within oral history's history and their continued relevance today. Greenspan discusses the exploration of oral history in his college classes that focus on "testimonies" from Holocaust survivors, reflecting on what students themselves have said about this collaborative learning process. Neyzi's piece delves into the ways in which oral history is a complicating methodology that can challenge the silences imposed through a hegemonic nationalist history. In the political and cultural milieu of contemporary Turkey, her students grapple with their understandings of the past and their willingness to question official stories and histories told to them over years of public education. Sheftel rounds out this collection of essays with an analysis of her postmodern approach to teaching oral history, drawing on her students' course evaluations and follow-up correspondence, as well as her perspective as instructor, situating her experiences within current concepts including "fake news" and "alternative facts."

Our book review editor, Nancy MacKay, has solicited a number of reviews of literature important to the field, as well as critiques of books from related disciplines that have the potential to inform our work in oral history. We also have eleven reviews of nonprint media, including a featured review by Liam Lair on the state of oral history projects preserving the histories of trans individuals. Other reviews consider the broad spectrum of podcasts, an emerging...