Planning, Conducting, and Writing Multisited, Multilingual Research with Survivors of Torture

Abstract

I recently completed 74 oral history interviews with refugees from multiple origins to ascertain how they interpret and learn from popular and government-produced media throughout their relocation to the USA. This multisited, multilingual research presented a unique manifestation of the ethical and pragmatic considerations inherent within qualitative research. In this brief essay, I reflect on the challenges and implications of planning, doing, and writing engaged scholarship in peculiar contexts.

Keywords:

• Refugees
• Interviews
• Oral History
• Methodology

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by an oral history grant from the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard University, a grant from the Waterhouse Family Institute for the Study of Communication and Society at Villanova University, and a summer research award from the Dietrich School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh.