While she was a graduate student at Sabancı University Cultural Studies M.A. Program, Seda Doğan conducted an oral history interview with 81 year-old Vera “Hanım” [Lady]. Vera Hanım, an Armenian born and raised in Ankara, talked about her relations with her family and their circle, and her decisions concerning whether to move abroad or not.
Seda: “I wrote a thesis to graduate from the Sociology Department at Galatasaray University. For this thesis, I conducted in-depth interviews. This is how I realized that I enjoy conducting face-to-face interviews with people. When I entered Sabancı University, I heard about Leyla Neyzi’s seminar, Cultural Studies 351/561 Oral History, and decided to take this course as an elective. Although at the beginning I was not fully aware of what oral history is, I imagined that doing history by talking to people would appeal to me as someone who likes to conduct in-depth interviews. Indeed, it turned out as I expected, while putting the theories recounted in class into practice via the project, I concluded that oral history is something that I might want to do in the future. My knowledge of oral history is so far is confined to what I learned in class.”
