Paper short abstract:

The paper explores challenges in teaching ethnographic fieldwork and oral history interviews during the COVID-19-Pandemia. Based on recent teaching experiences, I will reflect ethical and methodological challenges and the solutions that digital technologies can provide.

Paper long abstract:

“Are you actually giving a fieldwork course? Now?” I have faced these questions during the past months both as a university teacher of Folklore Studies. At first it seemed that my classes of ethnographic fieldwork and oral history interviews should be cancelled or postponed until the future when everything would be “back to normal” again. But I decided give it a try, encouraged by my collaborators at the Finnish Youth Research Network, Sofia Laine and Susanna Jurvanen. We collaborated already a year ago in the fieldwork course, where students of Ethnology and Folklore Studies at University of Helsinki did observations and interviews on the activities of Break the Fight-project, which runs workshops and performances of hip-hop arts (breakdance, beatboxing, graffiti) in the Eastern suburbs of Helsinki (www.breakthefight.net). This year everything was different: students did the observations through Zoom video links, and interviews were made with Zoom, WhatsUpp and a few as contact interviews. Students also wrote a joint essay on their experiences which will be published in the blog of Finnish Youth Research Network. I am right now planning a course on oral history, focused on the changing work practices in the Högfors Ironworks in my hometown Karkkila. This will mean new challenges and ethical issues, because the interviewees are retired workers with limited access to internet and digital tools. In my paper I will reflect these ethical and methodological challenges and the solutions that digital technologies can provide to promote involvement and interaction.