Witness Seminars

ANZSHM has supported the holding of a Witness Seminar, relevant to history of health and medicine in Australia, New Zealand and/or the Pacific region, at biennial conferences and associated history of medicine meetings.

Witness Seminars are a type of group oral history, pioneered in medical history by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine in the early 1990s. The format was created by the Institute of Contemporary British History at University College London, for political history.

In a Witness Seminar, a facilitator (typically a historian) guides discussion of the history of a specific topic, drawing on people with experience of the topic who “witnessed” that history.

ANZSHM’s Witness Seminars usually consist of two parts of around 60-90 minutes. The first centres on a panel of witnesses (not exclusively: clinicians, scientists, consumers, historians) who discuss, reminisce, and debate the topic aided by the facilitator. The second half invites audience participation, moderated by the facilitator.

Questions such as: ‘Whose idea was it?’, 'What was it like at the time?', and ‘How was your experience different from others?‘ form the backbone of discussions. The proceedings are recorded and, where possible, transcribed.

ANZSHM’s Witness Seminars tend to draw on a subject and related expertise that is connected to the biennial conference location.

ANZSHM Witness Seminars since 2003