Tag: social history

Historian Catherine Freyne (radio version)

Historian Catherine Freyne (radio version)

Revisiting part of a conversation with historian Catherine Freyne about her doctoral project which situates her own family experience of her father being secretly homosexually active with a wife and kids in an historical context. The extended podcast version of this conversation (which is more than twice as long) is available by subscribing for free to the Wide Open Air Exchange podcast and searching in your podcast library for the episode titled: "Sexuality, History, and Family Memoir". Catherine was a guest on the Wide Open Air Exchange in July 2022 whilst a doctoral researcher at UTS nearing completion of a thesis titled, “The Family as Closet: Gay/Bisexual married men and their families in Sydney, 1970-2000″. Some of the primary sources that Catherine had been studying were her father’s personal correspondence and writings which document his experiences of having secret relationships with men and his reflections after leaving a 30 year marriage and claiming a homosexual identity. This is the radio version that was broadcast on 2SER 107.3FM Sydney.

Oral History Transcript: Social History and Women’s History (Dr Lis Kirkby)

Oral History Transcript: Social History and Women’s History (Dr Lis Kirkby)

If public records are correct Dr Elisabeth Kirkby turned 100 earlier this year (2021). I've been thinking about our conversation for the Wide Open Air Exchange podcast when Lis was aged 96 and how it could be of interest to researchers of women in mid-20th century British and Australian social and political culture and to other readers more generally.