What We Do

QUOTE (Queen’s University Oral History, Technology & Ethics) is a resource for the dissemination of oral history research, teaching and training. It draws together the expertise of a number of Queen’s University researchers who are passionate about oral history and its potential for producing more democratic and inclusive forms of history.

We aim to tackle head on the ethical and legal challenges of collecting and using oral testimony in a digital world to ensure that oral history at QUB becomes a byword for innovation, partnership, interdisciplinary co-operation and international best practice.

Gathering together in the first instance our considerable expertise in documenting the social, economic and political history of Northern Ireland, we intend to develop existing international links and projects.

Several of the QUOTE members already play leading roles in local and national oral history networks and societies. These include the Oral History Society, the Oral History Network of Ireland and the Healing Through Remembering Stories Network.

Through the development of the QUOTE hub we seek to develop greater European and global recognition as an interdisciplinary hub of excellence in oral history research. Our activities will include the pooling and dissemination of key resources, and the organisation of dedicated oral history seminars, training workshops and conferences. Reflecting the best traditions and democratic nature of oral history, all of our activities will be predicated on the principle of shared authority.

QUOTE will build real and meaningful partnerships with colleagues working in local history and voluntary associations, museums and archives, reminiscence networks, community history organisations and in the media. Together we will collect testimonies to produce inconclusive histories that capture the ‘intangible heritage’ that can only be found the excavation of popular memory.