Project on History and Privacy - looking for research experiences
Colleagues:
I am working on book, tentatively entitled Privacy and the Past:
History, Research, Ethics, in which I explore how historians have dealt with “private” information about those who are dead, even long dead.
* Have you made decisions about what personal details to include or exclude about dead individuals in your presentations and publications in which you weighed the importance of fidelity to archival (or other) sources against your concern to protect the identities or reputations of your historical actors?
* Have you been refused access to archival materials (or other sources) containing information about deceased people for reasons entirely due to the privacy policies of a specific archive, rather than to the protections required by U.S. state or federal laws?
I am seeking a wide range of perspectives, so if you think you might be interested in being interviewed, please contact me at 402-472-3240 or by email at slawrence2@unl.edu. I can then answer any questions you have about my project, provide you with a consent form, and arrange a time convenient for you to speak with me.
Please respond off-list.
Thanks!
Sincerely,
Susan C. Lawrence
Department of History
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lincoln, NE 68588
402-472-3240