ANU Emeritus Faculty Oral History Project

ANU Emeritus Faculty began its Oral History Project in 2008, and by year's end had accumulated the interviews listed in the catalogue. Emeritus Faculty intends to continue conducting interviews on a regular basis during coming years, adding these to the catalogue as they are completed. Abstracts and MP3 audio files are available for these interviews. Transcripts will be generated at a later date.

"The energy of grace alone can make a soul strong in age." - John Henry Newman Purpose and method of the project Because of its access to and relationship with elders of the ANU, Emeritus Faculty is in a unique position to gather accounts of the origins and development of the ANU, aspects of which might be little known. Such stories potentially provide an opportunity for the pioneers to identify and record their place and role in the life and development of the university since its founding 60 years ago, and for them to make comment on what was happening around them. Emeritus Faculty's Oral History Program aims to provide an opportunity, through audio interviews carried out under comfortable, informal conditions, conducive of recall and elaboration by interviewees. The venue is usually the Emeritus Faculty office, though it may be the subject's home or office. The interviews are minimally structured, with the aim of letting the interview unfold as it will. Interviewees are encouraged to be as candid and speculative as they wish. Two collections of recordings and transcripts The interviews have two different origins. ANU Emeritus Faculty began its Oral History Project in 2008, and by year's end had accumulated the interviews listed in the catalogue. Emeritus Faculty intends to continue conducting interviews on a regular basis during coming years, adding these to the catalogue as they are completed. Abstracts are available for these interviews, and audio MP3 recordings. Transcripts will be generated at a later date. ANU Archives has a collection of approximately 50 interviews produced in the 1980s and 1990s, when ANU had its own Oral History Program, discontinued some time ago. These are mostly tape recordings, and not easily accessible. Transcripts were made of about half of these, and copies of the transcripts can be accessed through Emeritus Faculty. Emeritus Faculty intends soon to copy the original tape recordings, in digital format (audio MP3). These will then be more readily accessible, through the Faculty, more or less under similar conditions as its own collection. Use the links below to access these two catalogues, then direct inquiries to the project coordinators for further help in accessing the audio recordings, interview abstracts and biographies, and (where they exist) transcripts.