Voices of our National Health Service: Building a national oral history archive of the NHS and Covid-19
| Dates: | 23 November 2023 |
|---|
| Times: | 14:00 - 15:00 |
|---|
| What is it: | Seminar |
|---|
| Organiser: | School of Arts, Languages and Cultures |
|---|
| Speaker: | Stephanie Snow, Angela Whitecross |
|---|
|
|
Between 2017 and 2022, the NHS at 70 and NHS Voices of Covid-19 projects, based at the University of Manchester worked with volunteers from all walks of life to record the stories of patients, staff and the public which charted the 70+ years of the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). The work produced a collection of more than 2,400 interviews from people aged 18 to 100+, born in more than 50 different countries, sharing their experiences of the everyday place of the NHS in post-war British society for 70+ years including the Covid-19 pandemic. Deposited as the Voices of Our National Health Service (VONHS) oral history collection at the British Library, VONHS is a permanent public resource for use now and in the future.
This seminar will reflect on the building of this archive of personal testimony, which sought to diversify historical and contemporary understandings of the NHS, to include the lived experience of staff, patients and communities. We will explore how we shared agency and power, beyond the research team, with volunteers and stakeholders to build inclusive oral history practices and examine the positive impact this had on the consequent collection. Finally, we will discuss our experience of collecting and archiving in crisis, during the Covid-19 pandemic.
This event is sponsored by CIDRAL as part of its 2023-2024 Archives series.
Speakers
Stephanie Snow
Organisation: University of Manchester
Angela Whitecross
Organisation: University of Manchester
Travel and Contact Information
Find event
CHSTM Seminar Room, Second Floor
Simon Building
Manchester
