Making Sense of 1989
A digital interview project for higher education teaching and learning
In the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet empire and communist regimes in 1989, scholars around the world began to ask how such an important and complex series of events could have come as such a surprise to governments, scholars, and the population at large. At the time there was general agreement on the outlines of why the Soviet empire, communist regimes and state socialism ended so quickly, but a more thorough investigation would be required over many years before scholars could formulate more mature analyses of 1989 and its aftermath.
Now that the twentieth anniversary of 1989 is approaching, it is time not only to assess what we have learned over the past two decades, but also to facilitate the transfer of this knowledge to a new generation of students, teachers, and scholars. Making Sense of 1989 utilizes digital media to capture the analysis of current scholars and to provide the results of that analysis in digital form to subsequent generations. Over the next two years the project team will interview 12 leading scholars as well as 10 new and upcoming scholars and will make the results of those interviews available in an online database that makes full use of the capabilities of digital media to allow users to organize, present, and make sense of information.
Scholars interviewed will be selected from across Europe and the world, from across generations, and across methodological approaches. In this way, the eventual database will include the widest possible distribution of perspectives and conclusions. This distribution of expertise will also help visitors to the eventual website to see how ideas about 1989 are conditioned by local, generational, and methodological perspectives. So, for instance, a visitor to the website interested in the role of economic forces in the collapse of the Communist regimes, might first examine how scholars born in different decades viewed the importance of economic factors. Then she might examine how scholars with different methodological approaches viewed the same forces. Finally, she might then consider how scholars from the formerly Communist states viewed these forces in comparison to those from the other side of the boundary between what we used to call East and West.
Results of these interviews will be made available in a free interactive database accessed through a web interface that offers visitors powerful searching capabilities and a suite of tools for analysis of what they find online. Interviews will be conducted in English.
The project will be grounded in two projects examining 1989:
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Research Network 1989 (http://www.cee-socialscience.net/1989), a global network of junior scholars that is examining the ‘before’ and ‘after’ of 1989. From the Research Network 1989 we draw some of the interviewees (new and upcoming scholars) as well as commentators and authors for the companion volume.
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Making the History of 1989 (http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/), created by and housed at the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University in the United States. The CHNM project includes similar interviews with North American scholars, as well as a substantial database of primary sources from the events of 1989, and a variety of teaching tools aimed at high school and university teachers.
The Interviews – Approach and Themes
All interviews will follow a set procedure to ensure comparability and compatibility. ”Set procedure” means that we cover nine themes in each interview. However, within each theme the questions will be adapted to the interviewed scholar. Interviewers will prepare until they have a deeper understanding of the scholar’s oeuvre. Not only are many scholars highly individualistic, but we desire to make transparent method and craft as well as reasoning and analysis. Therefore the questions on each theme must be prepared anew for each interview. Where possible, we will pursue similar lines of inquiry within each theme, but the priority must be illuminate for the viewers and readers in-depth the method and content of the scholar’s work.
The interview themes are:
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The Scholar’s Oeuvre
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Central Idea and Conclusion
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Method and Craft
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Reasoning and Analysis
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Trajectory of the Scholar’s Work in Relation to Knowledge Development and Career Perspectives.
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Scholarly and Personal Experience of 1989 and the aftermath
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Retrospective Judgement of the Nexus between Social Science and Politics
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Evaluation of the Regional and Historical Context
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Outlook on the 20th Anniversary and "Future Revisions"
Production, a ccess and dissemination of the digital interviews
All files will be freely available, thereby providing open, efficient and quick access. All objects will be fully searchable, allowing users to locate any interview that addresses particular question that they may have. In addition, the project team will provide selections from the database organized around particular research questions of interest to teachers and students to facilitate their use of the interview results.
Colloquium for intergenerational knowledge transfer and a companion book
On the occasion of conducting the interview we would like to organise a colloquium to facilitate inter-generational knowledge transfer. The colloquium should facilitate the transmission of method and craft of interviewed senior scholars and will be addressed to participants who already possess a deeper appreciation of the scholars’ oeuvre. Within the framework of the project a companion volume is also envisioned. The volume will be collaboratively authored by members of the Research Network 1989 who have attended the respective interviews and colloquium. It will comprise comments on the interviews and analysis of the results of carried out interviews. The companion book will be published in late 2008.
Working Group Coordinator
Agnieszka Wenninger
Members
Mills Kelly, Chris Armbruster
last modified: 2006-09-27
