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What is a witness seminar?
Since its founding in 1986, the Institute of Contemporary British History (ICBH), now known as the Centre for Contemporary British History, has been uniquely associated with the production of 'witness seminars' on events or developments which have taken place within the bounds of living memory.
These exercises in oral history involve asking key participants to meet around the seminar table to discuss and debate the issues surrounding the chosen topic as they remember them. Witness seminars thus operate as group interviews, chaired by a senior academic, which are taped and transcribed primarily for the use of researchers.
The CCBH witness seminars are widely regarded by contemporary historians and social scientists as among the most useful and innovative forms of oral history. They often prove to be of more value than one-on-one interviews because of the interaction between witnesses stimulated during these discussions. They have been adopted by other institutions, both in Britain and abroad, and the CCBH has regularly collaborated with scholars from other institutions in planning and hosting witness seminars of particular relevance to their work.
A complete list of seminars held since 1986 can be found by clicking here.
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Contact the CCBH: Centre
for Contemporary British History at the Institute of Historical Research,
University of London, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU Telephone:
020 7862 8740 Fax: telephone office for number E-Mail: ccbhinfo@sas.ac.uk
© Centre for Contemporary British History at the Institute of Historical
Research, University of London, 2008. All rights reserved.
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