Ethical implications of my research proposal

I was glad for the class on research ethics, as beforehand I was completely in the dark about what sorts of ethical reviews my particular research might be subject to.  I’m hoping to do a bit of a discourse analysis around using oral history as a lens through which to explore the relationship between memory and place.  I’d also like to create a practical product as a result of my research, and so I’d like to record some personal oral histories from people in Toronto about their experiences with specific places. 

Oral history generally deals with the sensitive endeavour of representing marginalized groups or individuals whose personal experiences have been excluded, for whatever reason, from dominant historical narratives.  Likewise, exploring the relationship between memory and place often traverses some sensitive emotional and ethical territory, like a municipality’s popular memory surrounding things like war memorials, graveyards, battlefields, cathedrals, prisons, and so on.  I will certainly need to be extremely careful in the wording I use around such topics, in order to be sensitive to the people whose memories I’ll be discussing. 

By extension, in the oral history/interviewing portion of my project, I will have to put even more care into the language I use and the questions I ask of my interview subjects.  Of course, discussing personal memories around certain locations will require more sensitivity than others.  An interview subject might not have a difficult time describing what it was like to live in Yorkville during the 1960s, however another person might understandably have a tougher time talking about their experience arriving at the Toronto harbor as a WWII refugee, or about landmarks significant to indigenous people that have been displaced by building projects. 

I also imagined that my project would be subject to some sort of ethics review, but it was helpful to hear Dr. Sharpe’s explanation of the various levels of risk.  From what was said, I’d classify my project as one of fairly minimal risk, so I doubt that it would be subject to an entire review board.  I was also unaware that I would have to submit an interview guide, though I still need to look into the requirements and figure out what will be involved.  Unfortunately I haven’t gotten far enough along in my project to begin planning the exact sorts of questions I will ask.