In the first part of the roundtable, the filmmaker Edmund Bolger and Birgit Nemec presented the collaborative work of filming oral history interviews with people affected by the pharmaceutical drug Duogynon and drug related disability. In the second part, Birgit Nemec had a conversation with Thea Hermann, a member of the Netzwerk Duogynon e. V., which participated in the project together with the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests (ACDHPT).

The presentation and the conversation reflected upon crucial themes on collaborative and participative project between researchers, patients’ groups and activists. Discussing how to editorialise the life stories interviews and with what objectives showed that aims and meanings might be different for the participants. Ethics questions were also a central part of the conversation, given the sensitive medical and personal information involved in the oral history interviews.

The shared experience allowed for many insights and learned lessons. For researchers, it is important to be clear on their research objectives in collaborative projects. Artists and journalists felt they have a relative autonomy with the way they can editorialise the interviews but also shared a responsibility that reflects the historical research stakes. They also highlighted that there is a line between communication knowledge and producing new knowledge, which implies a reflection at different steps when recording and editing to give the material different directions.

For the affected persons, the historical research support and the films work were fundamental in their activism. The published filmed interviews, touching in detail on very sensitive topics, are contributing to change the public image of the survivors and help them pressure the pharmaceutical industry towards making public amendments. It was thus important for the materials to be public, open to be seen by the general public. However, the publications meant thinking beforehand on which elements each person wanted to get published. Some affected persons chose to have filmed interviews, other only their audio combined with pictures or other personal archives documents. As Thea Hermann stated, in the process of working together with the researchers she had control on how much of her story was open and publicised.

To learn more about this collaboration, please visit the Duogynon Stories website : https://portal.oral-history.digital/rh-oh/en

This collaborative research was carried by the Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine at the Charité Berlin, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, and the Faculty Centre for Transdisciplinary Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna.

In the first part of the roundtable, the filmmaker Edmund Bolger and Birgit Nemec presented the collaborative work of filming oral history interviews with people affected by the pharmaceutical drug Duogynon and drug related disability. In the second part, Birgit Nemec had a conversation with Thea Hermann, a member of the Netzwerk Duogynon e. V., which participated in the project together with the Association for Children Damaged by Hormone Pregnancy Tests (ACDHPT).

The presentation and the conversation reflected upon crucial themes on collaborative and participative project between researchers, patients’ groups and activists. Discussing how to editorialise the life stories interviews and with what objectives showed that aims and meanings might be different for the participants. Ethics questions were also a central part of the conversation, given the sensitive medical and personal information involved in the oral history interviews.

The shared experience allowed for many insights and learned lessons. For researchers, it is important to be clear on their research objectives in collaborative projects. Artists and journalists felt they have a relative autonomy with the way they can editorialise the interviews but also shared a responsibility that reflects the historical research stakes. They also highlighted that there is a line between communication knowledge and producing new knowledge, which implies a reflection at different steps when recording and editing to give the material different directions.

For the affected persons, the historical research support and the films work were fundamental in their activism. The published filmed interviews, touching in detail on very sensitive topics, are contributing to change the public image of the survivors and help them pressure the pharmaceutical industry towards making public amendments. It was thus important for the materials to be public, open to be seen by the general public. However, the publications meant thinking beforehand on which elements each person wanted to get published. Some affected persons chose to have filmed interviews, other only their audio combined with pictures or other personal archives documents. As Thea Hermann stated, in the process of working together with the researchers she had control on how much of her story was open and publicised.

To learn more about this collaboration, please visit the Duogynon Stories website : https://portal.oral-history.digital/rh-oh/en

This collaborative research was carried by the Institute for the History of Medicine and Ethics in Medicine at the Charité Berlin, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, and the Faculty Centre for Transdisciplinary Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna.