Course description  

The interview – a structured conversation – is central to the practice of a wide range of disciplines and genres, including ethnographic field work, human rights research, long-form journalism, creative non-fiction, and documentary film and podcasts. Interview-based research forms a basis for the understanding of culture, for reportage, and for narratives such as life histories, witness statements and confessions. The course combines training in technical interviewing techniques and skills with analysis of the transition from speech to writing, and the enduring authority of the human voice. Classwork includes field exercises in interviewing, recording, transcription and editing, the production of interview-based audio, film or written work, and remote collaboration with students in the wider Open Society University Network.