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.
A new major research project:
Sussex Retold: Sounds, Sites, Stories.
Rethinking regional arts, crafts, folklore and music through participation, partnership and performance
The arts, crafts, folklore and music of the South Downs come from land-workers, shepherds, fishers, farmers, traders, makers, writers, story-tellers and songsters. They express life with the chalk, cliffs, turf and clouds of the region, including as populations, industries and landscapes have changed over time. Investigating these in partnership with local heritage, council, land and cultural organisations, we rethink ways to re-story development from an inclusive perspective and where natural, cultural and regional heritages relate.
Project people include: Professor Margaretta Jolly: Principal Investigator, Dr Hope Wolf: Co-Investigator, Professor Ed Hughes: Co-Investigator, Dr Sam Carroll: Heritage Consultant and Project Manager
This project is supported by the Centre for Life History and Life Writing Research, the Sussex Centre for Modernist Studies and the South Coast Sustainability group within the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme. We also acknowledge and thank our funder, the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Impact Acceleration Account (IAA).
New book by CLHLWR vistiing research scholar:
John Horner and the Communist Party, Uncomfortable Encounters with Truth
by Rosalind Eyben, Routledge, 2024
CLHLWR associate researcher Rosalind Eyben has just published in Routledge’s Radical Politics and History series a life of her father. John Horner was a leading trade unionist and activist who became disillusioned with the Communist Party. Rosalind’s book is for anyone concerned with the problem of political allegiance, personal morality and associated states of denial that were to haunt Horner in later life. It will also be of interest to scholars and students researching communism and the Communist Party.