Séries S2 - Feminist media interviews

• Sound recordings

This series consists of interviews conducted by Barbara Freeman with editors of various feminist magazines and publications, including Broadside, Pandora, and Kinesis.

The following note was included from the creator:

Note to researchers: Barbara M. Freeman December 2014
These interviews were conducted and recorded as part of an oral history project on feminists in the alternative media, with a view to having the recordings archived after publication. Oral history as methodology has been the subject of numerous theoretical articles and books and is recognized as a sub-field of History and other disciplines. Oral histories are not only primary research tools in their own right, but are used to supplement documents and other methods of historical evidence-gathering, in this case, about past activism in the feminist and lesbian movements. Each of my interviews consisted of a series of incisive questions resulting in a structured, informative conversation with the participant about her editorial experiences in the feminist or lesbian press. All of my subjects were given a list of the questions ahead of time, in accordance with Canada’s Tri-Council guidelines on research with human subjects, and negotiated the conditions of their cooperation with me before the interviews were recorded. You will not get a real, accurate sense of them unless you listen to the recordings because transcripts do not pick up inflections, expression and tone of voice, which is important to understanding personal narratives. These transcripts have been checked against the recordings but some of the name spellings may need further checking, some of my brief interjections during the interviews may not be noted in the transcripts, commas may be misplaced, etc.
Also , please read the chapter about feminist periodicals from my book Beyond Bylines (2011), and the article I wrote that was published in Alternative Media in Canada, (2012) available at this library and online, including endnotes pertaining to the interviews. Bethan Lloyd of Pandora was particularly concerned about terminology used to describe her and her interests in my draft articles, which we sorted out in subsequent emails but may not be apparent in the interview I conducted with her. It is very important that you use the terminology I used in my publications, regardless of what you hear in the interview. It is also important that you check with her before you quote or paraphrase anything she says about sexual abuse. Please note also that Nancy Pollak of Kinesis has requested on the permission form she signed that she not be quoted without prior consultation. Esther Shannon of Kinesis, when I checked with her by email after the interview, was quite open about all her experiences and did not ask for access conditions. The same is true of Emma Kivisild and Fatima Jaffer of Kinesis and Philinda Masters of Broadside.
They all said things of a personal nature about third parties, however, regarding sexual orientation and other matters, information that should be verified in some way before being used.

NOTE: As of 2014, there are digital archives online of Broadside and Kinesis http://www.broadsidefeminist.com/
http://digitalcollections.library.ubc.ca/cdm/landingpage/collection/kinesis