Join the EUI Diplomatic and International History Working Group and the Interviewing and Oral History Working Group for an interdisciplinary discussion with Dr Frank Gerits, Dr Sigrun Moss and Mr Harry Mace.
Bringing together three scholars who have worked extensively with diplomatic sources, the roundtable will be an opportunity to discuss what’s at stake in diversifying the sources used a) to write histories of diplomacy, and b) in the broader context of social science research. Dr Frank Gerits (Utrecht University), and Harry Mace (University of Cambridge) will each present on an aspect of using (or not using) oral sources in their work on diplomatic history. Conversely Dr Sigrun Moss (University of Oslo) will discuss her experiences interviewing diplomats and other foreign affairs specialists from her unique perspective as a cultural and social psychologist. The presentations will be followed by an informal discussion between speakers and the audience which we hope will present an opportunity for participants to discuss the challenges and opportunities of using oral sources both within the context of diplomatic history and the broader social sciences.
Speaker Biographies
Dr Frank Gerits is Assistant Professor in the History of International Relations at Utrecht University. He works with sources in the Global South and the Global North to recover the history of formerly colonised territories. He focuses on African agency and how African decision-making shaped international relations after 1945. In that way he seeks to recover the international history of the 20th century beyond the Cold War.
Harry Mace is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. Harry’s research examines the shifting gender order of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the late twentieth century showing how institutional notions of masculinity shaped the gender identities, sexualities, and subjectivities of British diplomats and home-based staff from women’s admission as diplomatic officers in 1946 until the turn of the millennium. As part of this research, Harry has conducted over eighty oral history interviews with a range of retired and serving diplomatic personnel.
Dr Sigrun Moss is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oslo. Sigrun’s research on diplomacy examines the Scandinavian Ministries of Foreign Affairs work with gender equality, and how this is conceptualized and communicated by diplomats. Through this she also explores the Nordic branding that gender equality often becomes a part of, as well as the place identities that tie into these presentations. Gender equality is linked to normativity and correct presentations, tying this research to challenges and opportunities with conducting interviews with diplomats.
We welcome everyone with an interest in diplomatic and/or oral history to attend, even if they themselves do not define as a diplomatic or oral historian, for what promises to be a fun and fruitful interdisciplinary discussion.