Making history: The experience of building the first oral history project in Kuwait

This presentation will show how the American University of Kuwait built the first oral history project in the country and the various stages it went through. We will talk about the planning of the Oral History and Documentation Project, the training received by AUK’s faculty and staff as well as members of Kuwaiti society, securing funding, and the challenges faced in developing the technical infrastructure. The project is currently focused on conducting extensive life history interviews by a team of AUK staff, freelancers, and volunteers. An important aspect of this project is creating a bridge between different generations in Kuwait, which is established through the collaboration between researchers, young volunteers, and interviewed pioneers. These interviews delve into different eras of Kuwait’s history including the traumatic event of the invasion of Kuwait in 1990, which is one of the main challenges that the project and interviewers face. Some of the other challenges to be covered during this presentation are censorship in Kuwait, cultural specificity, and lack of resources.