Jesse Olszynko-Gryn: Oral history and audiovisual sources

In recent decades, the history of science has become more capacious. No longer centred around the professional scientist, it now encompasses a much wider range of previously sidelined agents, from technicians and activists to patients and consumers. This expansion has opened new historiographical vistas, revitalizing the field. At the same time, it has drawn scholars out of the library and archive and into less familiar spaces. Increasingly, we find ourselves learning about the past not only from manuscripts but also from oral history and audiovisual sources.

Through a series of case studies, this workshop explores how historians of science might deepen their engagement with more-than-textual forms of research and communication, and what this could mean for the politics and ethics of the discipline.

Jesse Olszynko-Gryn is Head of the Laboratory for Multimodal History in the Department Knowledge Systems and Collective Life at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and author of the book A woman’s right to know: Pregnancy testing in twentieth-century Britain (MIT Press, 2023).

In order for the seminar to be beneficial for attendees, Olszynko-Gryn proposes a prior reflection exercise and a series of readings (you can request the corresponding texts from laia.torres.casas@uab.cat).

This event is part of the “Workshops on Historiographic Tools” (WHITS) series. Aimed primarily at doctoral students, it is also open to the entire academic community.