preparing to become an interviewer with the Texas After Violence Project

Before you conduct any interview, you will need to go through our training, or at least parts of it, and apprenticeship, even if you have conducted oral history interviews before.

There are various approaches to oral history, and we want to make sure you are comfortable with the project's approach.

Also, these interviews deal with difficult, excruciatingly painful topics that you may not have thought about before. We want you to know what you are getting into.

No one conducts a personal narrative interview until she or he has completed our training and also served as an apprentice. This apprenticeship is individualized to a degree, but normally includes the person first transcribing at least two interviews, observing at least two interviews, recording one or two interviews, and conducting a couple of public actor interviews.

No one conducts a personal narrative interview until she or he is ready to do so. "Readiness" is a highly subjective determination, but we have to exercise our best, and in this case most conservative, judgment.

Finally, we cannot guarantee that anyone will interview on behalf of the project. We need and tremendously appreciate our student interns and volunteers, but our first responsibility is to the people we interview, many of whom have been radically disempowered and who may still be suffering. For this reason we will not promise you that you will conduct a personal narrative interview, although if you are not going to become an interviewer with us, we will let you know as soon as that becomes clear. We trust you understand.

If you plan on conducting interviews with our project, after the appropriate training and under our close supervision, submit your research proposal for review, following your school's procedures. Most colleges and universities (and other organizations that conduct research and receive federal funds) require anyone who is conducting "research with human subjects" to describe her (or his) work to their own Institutional Research Board (IRB) or similar review process. The student may not begin to research until her (or his) proposal is approved. In the interim, however, you can be of great service to the project in many ways, and you should use this time to complete your training.

Does oral history count as "research with human subjects?" There is some disagreement about this question, but we interact with people we interview in a very careful, conservative way. We assume that, yes, oral history does count as "research with human subjects." We have prepared a research protocol that answers in detail all typical IRB questions. (These rules follow federal guidelines and so are fairly similar from one institution to another.)

Why are we so picky? Because we agree that we need to be careful with other people, especially in circumstances when they may be vulnerable. The requirement that research proposals be reviewed by a careful, experienced, detail-oriented group of people is not meant to be a meaningless bureaucratic obstacle. Instead, the review is a necessary step to protect people from abuse, deception, and exploitation. These rules did not come out of thin air or some bureaucratic desire to create more paperwork. They came about as a result of some scientists' horrible treatment of other human beings as "guinea pigs" throughout most of the 20th century. The Texas After Violence Project supports these rules and agrees that we must do everything we can to avoid exploiting or deceiving people in any way.

We will happily give you our research protocol for you to consult in preparing your research protocol and answering IRB questions. You don't need to "recreate the wheel."