ABSTRACT
While oral historians generally conduct formal interviews, many oral history projects lend themselves to impromptu interviews and ethnographic fieldwork. Oral history has evolved from experimental methodologies to a well-developed method of historical and social science research, yet interviewing remains culturally specific and contingent upon different contexts. Oral history techniques may differ depending on the study's focus. A crucial component that guides the project throughout, the research design lays out the subject and historical period, hypotheses, objectives, theoretical framework, type of oral history, and target population. If informants are illiterate and/or addressing topics that may put them at risk, informed consent may be acquired orally to buttress their anonymity. One of the murkiest issues in oral history research is whether to pay interviewees. Unlike topical oral history projects that work with a broad spectrum of interviewees, historian Daniel James's seminal study was informed by numerous interviews with one woman.
