Workshop with Linda Sandino

This workshop introduces doctoral students and early-career researchers to oral history as a critical method within visual arts, design, and curatorial research. Led by Linda Sandino, an academic, author, and researcher internationally recognised for her work in narrative and oral history practices, the session draws on decades of experience documenting the life histories of artists, designers, craftspeople, and curators. Drawing on her work as Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum and her extensive contribution to the National Life Story collection at the British Library, the workshop explores oral history as both research methodology and interpretive practice. Participants will examine interviewing techniques, ethical questions, and the relationship between spoken narrative, memory, and material culture. The workshop combines discussion, listening, and practical reflection, inviting participants to consider how oral history can expand scholarly research, complicate authorship, and open new forms of historical and critical inquiry.

Dr Linda Sandino is an academic, author, and researcher recognised for her work in oral history within the visual arts and design sectors.  As a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and former Senior Research Fellow at the University of the Arts London (UAL), she has dedicated her career to documenting the life histories of artists, craftspeople, designers, and curators, as well as teaching.  Her extensive recordings form a crucial part of the National Life Story collection at the British Library National Sound Archive. She co-edited the foundational text Oral History in the Visual Arts (2013), as well as other publications on narrative research in the visual arts.