Paul Thompson was one of the earliest appointments to the sociology department and world leader of the oral history movement.

Creating a University: Podcast Series

In 1964, the doors to the University of Essex opened for the first time and welcomed an initial cohort of just 122 students. Today there are more than 12,000 students from over 130 countries studying at three campuses across the county, and around 70,000 alumni worldwide.

This new podcast series tells the story of Essex from its earliest days – – through interviews with people who were there, including students, staff from all levels and local residents.

The podcasts are based on archive interviews for the Wivenhoe Oral History Project, established by Paul Thompson. Paul was one of the founder members of the Essex  Department of Sociology – and a world leader in the field of Oral Hiostory. For many years, the journal Oral History was based in the sociology departmemt.  He has made these podcasts in conjunction with the university and they can be found be clicking here: http://www.essex.ac.uk/fifty/podcasts/

One podcast is to be released every month between November 2012 and August 2013

More about the podcasts

Series Editor: Chris Garrington
Series Director: Paul Thompson