100 Questions/ 3
Translated by Mandana Karimi
2025-11-07
We asked several researchers and practitioners in the field of oral history to share their views on key questions in this field. The name of each participant appears at the beginning of their response. All responses will be published on this portal by the end of the week. The goal of this project is to open new perspectives on a shared issue and to promote academic dialogue in the field of oral history.
In this project, a new question is posed every Saturday, and experts are invited to express their views in a short text (around 100 words) by the end of the week. All responses are published together so that readers can compare and analyze different viewpoints.
The views expressed belong to the contributors and do not necessarily represent the stance of the Oral History website. Although the responses are expected to be around 100 words, longer ones are accepted when needed for politeness or completeness of discussion.
This time we asked the scholars the send their answers until Sunday so we can publish all of them on Tuesday.
Question 3:
What is the significance of memory or oral history in the contemporary era?
Hassan Beheshtipour:
In response to your question, it must be said that in the given sentence, the verb is singular, and the presence of the word “or” between “memory” and “oral history” shows that the questioner assumes the two are synonymous. However, memory and oral history are fundamentally different. Memory is personal and raw experience, while oral history, through methodology, verification, and analysis, turns that experience into a reliable source for understanding contemporary history. In oral history, narratives are presented not from elites but from ordinary people; these are direct, popular, and lively accounts that connect individual experience to collective memory.
Mohammad Mehdi Behdarvand:
Memory and oral history in the contemporary era are essential tools for reconstructing collective memory and recording the lived experiences of different generations. At a time when political, social, and cultural changes occur rapidly, oral history can fill the gaps left by written documents and reveal hidden layers of reality. This approach not only records historical data from the perspective of direct witnesses to events but also provides a foundation for sociological, psychological, and cultural analyses. In contemporary Iran, oral history has played a key role in documenting the Islamic Revolution, the Sacred Defense, and subsequent developments, thereby helping preserve the nation’s identity. Thus, oral history can be seen as a bridge between personal experience and national memory that ensures the continuity of a society’s historical awareness.
Mohammad Mehdi Abdollahzadeh:
Memory and oral history are two concepts that differ in production, structure, credibility, and function. Over the past half-century, as oral history has developed, many prominent historians have presented theories that define oral history as a method, technique, and scholarly field within history. In memory, the narrator speaks alone, either writing or verbally recounting their recollections; but in oral history, both the interviewer and interviewee act as historians. In this process, the interviewer with possessing the necessary qualifications, guides the interview according to a pre-designed plan and plays a key role in clarifying ambiguities, validating information, and making the content more intelligible. As a result, the text produced has greater scholarly credibility than simple memory, contains fewer unnecessary details, and follows a more coherent logical structure.
Abolfazl Hasan Abadi:
Human beings’ need for permanence, the desire to be seen, and the effort to present their lived experiences have led people throughout history to record their memories in the form of diaries and various notes. Many valuable historical insights today are found within such memories. The emergence and expansion of oral history has helped give visibility to individuals from different social groups who, due to limitations in ability, access, or even willingness, did not have a structured and conscious platform to present their memories. In contemporary history, the interaction between memory and oral history is like two sides of the same coin, they complement each other in providing the necessary information for transferring historical identity from one era to another.
Gholamreza Azari Khakestar:
The importance of oral history in the contemporary period cannot be overlooked, as a significant portion of human experiences, memories, and narratives are not found in written records. Oral history, as a research tool, helps document hidden parts of a society’s history and preserve portions of the people’s collective memory.
Oral history researchers, by recording lived experiences, help preserve these experiences for future generations along with the identity and oral heritage associated with them. Memories and oral narratives are valuable research sources for scholars and, in fact, represent the voices of different classes and layers of society in contemporary history.
Seyed Mohammad Sadegh Feyz:
The rapid pace of events in the digital age and the flow of information prevents audiences from accessing many occurrences. Sometimes even news followers, due to the volume of events, news gatekeeping, or restrictions imposed by institutions on the free distribution of information, cannot reach primary sources. In such cases, oral history helps audiences fill the gaps created by the deliberate manipulation of information flow, though this often happens over time.
More importantly, oral history helps extract truth from the web of distortions surrounding events. Through interviews, fact-checking, and newly uncovered documents, oral history opens a path back to the clear source of truth, even if that path is long and difficult.
Hamid Ghazvini:
We live in a time where two things have become extremely important: first, human beings and their beliefs and actions, and second, history, which is more emphasized today than ever before.
Naturally, contemporary history receives greater attention because the effects of its events are more tangible.
In this context, oral history is an example of attention to human beings regardless of their social status and has a deep connection with contemporary history.
Through oral history, individuals can speak about their past, their concerns, and their actions in response to surrounding phenomena, offering answers to the “why” and “how” before the dust of time settles on those experiences.
Oral history helps reduce the opacity of time and allows people to connect with the past in order to think more clearly about the future, a past that plays a major role in shaping one’s current identity and circumstances.
Shafighe Niknafs:
Memory and oral history both rely on human memory and personal experience and are products of the human mind. Those aspects of historical reality that are not reflected in official documents often appear in memories and oral narratives. These two bring history from the official domain into the personal realm and, by reflecting experiences, emotions, and perspectives, offer rich and detailed information unavailable in written sources. However, oral history holds a higher status due to its research-based nature and the active role of the interviewer. This field focuses on lived experience, spans a wide variety of topics and social groups, and has found extensive application in areas such as labor, education, art, and science.
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