Mary Stewart

As Curator of Oral History and Deputy Director of the oral history fieldwork charity National Life Stories, I work across a diverse range of projects at the British Library and liaise with external partners depositing their interviews into the Library collections. I am also a Trustee of the Oral History Society, a member of both the Oral History Society Archives Sub-committee and the British Library/Oral History Society Training Liaison Group.

My research interests include family histories and narratives and their use as a tool for academic research and oral history and its reception by family members of interviewees. I have also been exploring the 'biography' of the oral history archive: contextualising collections, capturing information about the research process and exploring ethical debates about the re-use of archived oral history material. My previous research includes the history of Scottish settlement in New Zealand in the 19th century.