This event is part of the Art and Testimony Webinar Series 2024 co-hosted by the University of Victoria’s Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives project and the UBC-V Public Humanities Hub.
“Survivor-Centred Visual Narratives” is an international project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada under the title “Visual Storytelling and Graphic Art in Genocide and Human Rights Education” (SSHRC Partnership Grant; 2022-2029).
Empowering Narratives: Videotaped Interviews vs Graphic Novels
The act of coercive televised confessions by intelligence agencies has cast a long shadow, making traditional video interviews a source of anxiety and distrust. In conversation with Dr. Uğur Ümit Üngör and Dr. Peter Klein, we will delve into the ethical dimensions of interview methodologies, particularly examining the discomfort and potential trauma associated with videotaped interviews, especially in authoritarian countries, such as Syria, Iran, or China. Drawing from personal experience, Dr. Üngör advocates for the adoption of graphic novels as a compassionate and empowering alternative to traditional interview methods. Through the lens of visual narratives, this discussion encourages a shift towards more ethical and humane research methodologies, acknowledging the impact of cultural and political contexts on the interview process.
Hosted by Dr. Charlotte Schallié, Professor and Chair of Germanic and Slavic Studies at the University of Victoria, and PhD Candidate Sydney Lines, Project Manager of the Public Scholarship Series at UBC’s Public Humanities Hub.
Thursday, April 4, 2024
11:00 AM -12:30 PM Pacific Time
Online via Zoom
Speaker Bios
Uğur Ümit Üngör (PhD Amsterdam, 2009) is Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Amsterdam and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies. His main areas of interest are genocide and mass violence, with a particular focus on the modern and contemporary Middle East. He is an editor of the Journal of Perpetrator Research, and coordinator of the Syria Oral History Project. His publications include Confiscation and Destruction: The Young Turk Seizure of Armenian Property (Continuum, 2011), and the award-winning The Making of Modern Turkey: Nation and State in Eastern Anatolia, 1913-1950 (Oxford University Press, 2011). From 2014 to 2019, Üngör coordinated a Dutch Research Council-funded research project on paramilitarism, which led to the monograph Paramilitarism: Mass Violence in the Shadow of the State (Oxford University Press, 2020). He is currently working on its follow-up monograph Assad’s Militias and Mass Violence in Syria (forthcoming, 2024). He is also co-author of Syrian Gulag: Assad’s Prison System, 1970-2020 (I.B.Tauris, 2023).
Peter W. Klein is the founder of the Global Reporting Centre, a UBC-based non-profit focused on producing and innovating journalism on under-reported issues around the world. He is former director of the University of British Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, where he continues to serve as a Professor, teaching investigative and global reporting, and leading research projects on global health and security. Peter is also a faculty affiliate at the School of Public Policy & Global Affairs, and is principle investigator of the SSHRC Partnership “Hidden Costs of Global Supply Chains.” Peter also serves as Executive Editor of NBC News, and previously served as a producer at CBS News 60 Minutes and a regular opinion contributor to The Globe & Mail. He is the recipient of numerous journalism awards, and has held close to $10 million in tri-council and philanthropic funding for research at UBC.