The Iraqi Oral History Project

FAIN: RZ-50737-07

American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (Chicago, IL 60615-4573)
Stephanie Platz (Project Director: November 2006 to November 2008)
McGuire Gibson (Project Director: November 2008 to June 2012)

The collection and interpretation of oral histories from Iraqis in Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

TAARII requests support over three years for the collection of oral history interviews among Iraqis in Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This three-year period represents Phase One of an oral history project begun as a pilot project with TAARII support. To date, 42 interviews with Iraqis over fifty years old have been conducted in Jordan. On the basis of preliminary analysis of these interviews, the interview questionnaire has been revised for use in a broader study that will collect, translate and transcribe and analyze 60 interviews per year in multiple Phases. Phase One has two immediate aims. The first is to begin to establish an archive for the project that includes digital recordings, transcripts, and translations (in Arabic and English), for use by scholars internationally, in any field of the humanities. The second aim is to begin analysis of interview transcripts immediately, for several scholarly publications.