Life history and life writing research uses life story - whether in the form of oral history, personal narrative, autobiography or biography - as a primary source for the study of history and culture.
Life history and life writing research uses life story - whether in the form of oral history, personal narrative, autobiography or biography - as a primary source for the study of history and culture. Life stories capture the relation between the individual and society, the local and the national, the past and present and the public and private experience. Research involves grappling with theories of memory, relationship and self representation, and with debates about literacy and orality. Many disciplines contribute to the field, including history, sociology, anthropology, literary philosophy, cultural studies and psychology. Life history and life writing researchers present their work in many forms. As well as academic publications, we contribute to radio and television documentaries, auto/biographical drama, reminiscence work, digital and video presentations and exhibitions. Life history and life writing research is, of necessity, concerned with ethics and power relationships, and with the potential for advocacy and empowerment.
Our next free event:
The Missing List and Life Writing Projects:
Quests for truth in the age of truthiness
Wed 17 October 2018, University of Sussex4-5.30pm, Room 155, Jubilee Building
We are proud to present Clare Best and her new memoir The Missing List. Clare Best has been haunted all her life by dark family secrets. When she agreed to help her dying father record his memoir, she embarked on an urgent quest for the truth. This brought particular ethical and aesthetic challenges, weaving together her father’s words, his ciné-film footage, her own journal entries and scraps of childhood memory.
Clare’s reading will be followed by a presentation from Professor Lyn Thomas, curator of Life Writing Projects, which publishes creative and experimental representations of lived experience.
Together, we will debate questions of perspective, identity and art central to the task of life narration in any media, as well as the challenge of finding truth in an age when it is arguably threatened, paradoxically, by ‘truthiness’.
There will be time for questions and discussion, followed by wine, soft drinks and nibbles till 6.30pm.
ALL WELCOME; DISABLED ACCESS. FREE EVENT; NO NEED TO BOOK.
Full programme coming soon. For more information click HERE.
We are pleased to be collaborating with The Keep to support this exciting upcoming course:
Beyond The Family Tree: Writing, Curating and Presenting Your Family’s Past.
Please note: This course will soon be repeated.
A practical creative writing course is designed to help individuals work imaginatively with their family archives, which might include letters, journals, documents, photographs, artworks and objects. For more information click HERE.
This practical creative writing course is designed to help individuals work imaginatively with their family archives, which might include letters, journals, documents, photographs, artworks and objects. Led by author and life historian Shivaun Woolfson, the sessions will enable you to develop a narrative approach and explore ways of telling your story, while Keep staff will offer advice on finding, interpreting and caring for family archives. There will be an opportunity to take part in a guided tour of The Keep and, in the final session, to share your work with family and friends.
Updates
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You can view and download the CLHLWR Annual Report 2018 here.
- You can view and download the CLHLWR Annual Report 2017 here.
- You can view and download the CLHLWR Annual Report 2016 here.
- You can view and download the CLHLWR Annual Report 2015 here.
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You can view and download the CLHLWR Annual Report for 2014 here.