This symposium will explore why and how oral history has been privileged as a methodology for capturing women activists’ experience in very different countries and contexts.

We will compare interviewing, archiving, interpretation and publicising methods and identify good practice that we can share. We will also identify strategies for future oral-historical research on transnational and cross-cultural feminism.

Featuring seven innovative feminist oral history projects:

Sisterhood and After: The Women’s Liberation Oral History Project

The China Women’s University Women’s Oral History

Unfinished Histories: British Alternative Theatre, 1968-88

Oral Histories of the Black Women’s Movement: The Heart of the Race

The Trade Union Congress Recording Women’s Voices Series

Subverting Stereotypes: Asian Political Activism in the UK

Unbecoming Men: Masculinities and the Women’s Liberation Movement, 1970–1985

This event is co-sponsored by The University of Sussex (Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research) and The University of Brighton (Centre for Memory, Narrative, History). We also thank the British Academy for its generous contribution.