Page 16 - issue-25 - en

ELITE Vol.1 No.25, Nov. 2020

Giving a Voice to the Voiceless

Report on The workshop held by FEPS Unit of Women Studies on

"Qualitative Methodology: Oral history from a gender perspective"

Yasmine Aladdin

Asst.Researcher at the unit
and the untold stories of the people. Oral history emerged in the
1960s and 1970s and intersected with social movemen ts and
The Women Studies Unit organized a workshop titled “Qualitative
women's liberation movements. Oral history brings to focus
Methodology: Oral history from a gender perspective ” over three
problematic issues such as “interpretation, ” “practice, ” and
days (offline-online) from 10 to12 October 2020 at the Faculty of
"documents and the written words," among others. Be cause of the
Economics and Political Science, Cairo University. At the
injustice inflicted on women and other classes in o fficial history,
beginning of the workshop, Dr. Amal Hamada, director of the
oral history became a tool through which a voice is given to the
Women Studies Unit, gave a brief introduction about the history
voiceless. However, there are number of challenges facing it; for
of the Faculty of Economics and Political Science with its major
example, the myth of objectivity, the written versus the unwritten,
and minor departments, the work and various activities of the the duality of truth and fiction, and other dualiti es.
Women Studies Unit, and its unique nature as the only entity
The epistemology of knowledge as well as the positio nality of
within Egyptian universities that combines the study of gender
knowledge were other important issues also discusse d during the
and development in Egypt. The workshop hosted 17 participants
workshop. Accordingly, the basic components of the "politics of
who came from different backgrounds with the passion to learn
representation" were discussed with a special focus on the
about qualitative methodology, and oral history in particular.
relationship between the narrator and the researcher and the

power dynamics between the two. Further issues rela ted to the
The workshop was conducted by prominent scholars in the field of
study of oral history included the problem of "memory ," the
gender and oral history; namely: Dr. Hala Kamal, Dr. Hoda Al-Sadda,
politics of analyzing language, power and authority , the
Dr. Hoda Al-Saadi and Dr. Rania Abdel-Rahman.
"interpretation of the oral text and "dominating na rratives" from a
On the first day of the workshop, many issues and co nceptual
gender perspective. Participants engaged in lengthy discussions
frameworks related to feminism and oral history wer e tackled, with a
on those issues and challenges and how to develop a better
special focus on the interconnections between differ ent concepts such
understanding of them.
as “feminist research, ” “feminine research ” and “women research, ” as
The third session of the workshop focused on the pr actical level.
well as the difference between the concept of “gender ” and “women ”
It introduced participants to different techniques o n how to deal
studies, in addition to intersectionality in the field of feminist studies.
with historical documents and narratives of oral his tory. Through
The second session focused on knowledge of the tools and objectives
these activities, participants were acquainted with the main
of feminist research and the ability to introduce t his perspective as a
challenges and limitations related to the topic. Th e goal of this
tool similar to those used in human and social sci ences. Furthermore,
last session was to give a practical example to part icipants on
the workshop discussed the development of feminism and feminist
how to use oral history from a gender perspective.
movements in the world, with a special focus on the Egyptian
Based on feedback from participants, the Women Studie s Unit
movement and its context, challenges and achievemen ts. Moreover,
intends to hold a longer version of the workshop, wh ere it can
oral history was discussed as an important research tool that has the
give participants the chance to implement the tool o n topics of
ability to bridge the gap between official history
their choice.
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