Centre for History

Oral History Research Consultant
h.manson@abdn.ac.uk

Dr Hugo Manson. Prior to his becoming a Centre for History associate and consultant in 2006, Dr Manson was a Senior Research Fellow in the School of Divinity, History and Philosophy (History) at the University of Aberdeen. There he was responsible for ‘Lives in the Oil Industry’, one of the largest oral history projects of its kind ever undertaken. A former schoolteacher and a long-time radio and television journalist in both New Zealand and the UK, Dr Manson has postgraduate degrees in French and Education and a PhD from the University of Bath. He has worked on a number of Centre for History oral history projects – dealing with the social history of forestry, the development of hydro power and the experience of community ownership in Gigha. Dr Manson serves on the committees of the Oral History Society, the Scottish Oral History Group and the European Oral History Network. He is a trustee of the Scottish Working People’s History Trust, a life member of the National Oral History Association of New Zealand, and co-founder of the New Zealand Oral History Archive. He is a Research Associate at the University of Strathclyde, and at Victoria University of Wellington, and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen. Dr Manson has published in the UK and New Zealand. His recent conference papers have included contributions to: the International Oral History Association (IOHA) Conference, Pietermaritzburg, South Aftrica, 2002; the (UK) Oral History Society national conference, Aberdeen, 2003 (keynote paper); the European Social Science History Conference, Berlin, 2004; the IOHA conference, Rome, 2004; the North American Conference on British Studies/PCCBS conference, San Francisco, 2007; the IOHA conference, Guadalajara, Mexico, 2008; the European Social Science History Conference, Gent, 2010. Dr Manson was convenor of the organising committee for, and presented a paper at, the (UK) Oral History Society national conference held in July 2009 in Glasgow.