Preparing to delve deeper into the world of historic houses
Posted: February 25, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized 4 CommentsAs the deadline is getting closer, reality sinks that we will be conducting interviews in a few weeks. My first and most concern with regards to the project is that I have not yet found someone to interview. I have been asking around my contacts in the historic houses world for advice and suggestions, but have not received any. I will definitely be pushing to find someone in the following weeks to be ready to interview someone at the end of March or early April. My other concerns regard the interview in itself and the adequate preparation I will be putting into to make sure the interviewee and I go through an enjoyable experience. Once the interview is underway, I am concerned about the possibility of letting my nerves take over and fall short of meaningful questions to ask my interviewee. It could also happen that the questions do not inspire the interviewee to give me a proper answer. I am furthermore concerned that a question I might ask would be misinterpreted negatively which would damage the rapport with my interviewee and lose his/her engagement in the conversation. Understanding that the person might talk about sensitive issues, I want to make sure to be supportive and encouraging during the whole process.
Nevertheless, I have high hopes that this interview will provide me, and potential listeners, the possibility of uncovering the reality of historic houses owners and enable me to have tangible evidence that there are misconceptions in our society about them. Having exchanged with many owners through my previous work experience, I do believe that there is a negative portrayal of them in the media, politics or society. These people care deeply about heritage and history, and preserving it for our generation and the next. I do hope this will come out of the interview process as it is the main theme I want to focus on and question the interviewee about. I also hope the interviewee engages with the project, feels at ease and opens up about the subject in an in-depth manner. It would make the project something quite meaningful and usable by heritage associations and organisations.
From this experience, I hope my interviewee gets his voice heard and is happy with the results. As for myself, I am most looking forward to getting a deeper look into someone’s life and experiences, and be surprised with what I will learn.
Fiction and Friendship: Hopes and Concerns
Posted: February 24, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment
My biggest hope for the interview is that I will get some insight into the role fiction has played in various life events, and if (and if they do, how) my interview partner shapes their life narrative around the fiction they have read. I would also like to find out which books stand out to them in their life history and those which they give special meaning to – books they read as children and see if they then read these to their children (if applicable), books they read at school and what they took from them, and books they read as an adult, and especially those they felt particular emotional connection to. I also hope to see how fiction reading has worked with friendship – the person I am interviewing is a member of a book group, so they obviously find reading to be something of a social activity as well as a personal one, so I hope to explore this topic further as well.
As far as concerns for the interview, I think one of my biggest challenges will be to make sure that I respond to what my interview partner says by asking appropriate follow up questions and not missing out key bits of information by getting flustered and trying to ask all the questions I pre-prepared. I am also slightly concerned that I will get tempted to give my own insights and experiences on books I’ve read in the interview, rather than focusing on how fiction has intertwined with my interview partner’s life story.
Finally, I am also aware that my ideas of the significance of fiction on life events might be somewhat over-inflated, and that the ideas I have to begin with simply don’t match up to other people’s lived experience of this. Whilst this will not be a wholly negative thing if this is what comes out of the interview, it’s something I am mindful of. 
The Experience of Terror
Posted: February 2, 2015 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a commentThroughout my years of studying history I have come across a wide range of topics: the Roman Empire, the Renaissance, the Crusades, the Cold War, and so on. Yet a lot of my interest today is based on the development of conflicts especially because they have become so intensively mediated in our everyday life. With the recent events in Paris and Charlie Hebdo, I grew particularly eager to base my oral interview on terrorism, although I am aware that it could be a difficult and delicate topic to handle.
I am not sure who to interview yet, but as I am currently working on a radio project on terrorism I will be traveling to interview experts who might be able to recommend me to someone. Interviewing a victim of an act of terror would make the interview an interesting and difficult challenge although it would be an extremely valuable experience. On the other hand, I also find counter-terrorism an appealing aspect of the topic and it would be equally interesting to interview an individual who has worked, or still does, in this particular field.
All of this is a preliminary idea and it is a rather ambitious project, but I hope that the next few weeks will allow me to develop my thoughts a little more accurately and give me the chance to encounter individuals who will accept to contribute to this oral interview.
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