Meet Our Networkers in London

Regional Adviser London

Sarah Gudgin

I am an OHS Regional Adviser for the London region and provide advice, support and training to individuals and groups undertaking their own oral history projects, as well as working as a freelance oral historian and heritage professional.  I am experienced in working with partners in a wide variety of settings, including museums, community heritage projects, arts organisations, charities and diverse communities. 

I am interested in creative and innovative approaches to collecting and interpreting oral history. I have collaborated with artists, creative practitioners and participatory community projects to explore stories about the past, people and place in order to communicate ideas, share information and involve audiences. I am a committee member of the OHS Creative Oral History special interest group (SIG).

As a freelancer, I have used my expertise to work in a range of settings to interview on a wide range of topics, to curate exhibitions, develop gallery inter-actives and A/Vs, as well as edit content for online exhibitions, using oral history materials to engage and educate.  I was previously Curator of Oral History at the Museum of London (2000-2013) where I was responsible for the care, management and development of a large oral history collection and archive used in exhibitions and galleries. I am also an accredited reminiscence practitioner and have delivered creative memory and reminiscence projects with museums and communities.

Recent activities include recording LGBTQ+ oral histories for Islington’s Pride; video oral history interviews with second and third generation Holocaust survivors for the IWM and a community heritage oral history project for the South London Gallery.Please get in touch via email: [email protected]

Chair, Regional Adviser London

John Gabriel

I became Chair of the Oral History Society in 2017 and I am a member of the Society’s Higher Education and Migration Special Interest Groups. I am also currently a member of the organising group for our 2022 Annual Conference on the theme of ‘Home’. I have participated in community based oral history projects since the early 2000s including those on refugees, young people in care, work experiences in declining industries of the Thames Gateway and lost trades in the London borough of Islington. I have recently collaborated with Jenny Harding and Verusca Calabria on a three day course for PhD students at universities in the south of England. I work part-time as a senior professor of Sociology at London Met. University where I teach health ethics and research methods. My research interests include racism, learning and teaching in higher education and oral history, of course!

Regional Adviser London

Pam Schweitzer

I have spent the last forty years developing reminiscence arts work, especially original reminiscence theatre productions, both professional and amateur. I founded the Age Exchange Theatre Trust and the Reminiscence Centre and was its Artistic Director from 1983 to 2005. I directed the European Reminiscence Network (1993 to the present) specialising in international reminiscence festivals and conferences and co-ordinating Europe-wide projects on reminiscence in dementia care. I am now based at the University of Greenwich, where I am developing the Reminiscence Theatre Archive and Website to preserve the interviews conducted over the years. I work with students on Reminiscence Theatre and Theatre-in-Education projects, often linking old and young in creative exploration of memories. I was awarded the MBE in the UK Honours List in 2000 for my services to reminiscence work. I was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Dementia Care Awards in 2014 and an Honorary Doctorate from University of Greenwich in 2017.

Regional Adviser London

Martin Bisiker

I specialise in the recording of filmed oral histories. I set up the charity  Legasee Educational Trust in 2011 and I now have an archive of over 650 personal testimonies of military veterans.  If you are considering the use of video for your oral history project, I will be happy to advise.

Regional Adviser London

Sam Guthrie

I’m an oral historian based in North London, if you’re interested in oral history projects (especially community based projects) and their ins-and-outs from start to finish, please do get in touch for a chat. I got a start in the field while pursuing my MA in Public History at Queen’s University, Belfast as lead cataloguer for National Museums Northern Ireland on the British Library’s “Unlocking Our Sound Heritage” Project. Subsequently, I led oral history projects across Ulster as a freelance project manager including “Our Stories – Our Times” with the British Red Cross,  “Stories on the Estate” with Ionad na Fuiseoige, the St Patrick’s Church Oral History Project, and “Echoes of the Field” a project produced for East Belfast GAA. Since 2025 I have been working on oral history projects in freelance and employed capacities in Australia and London through my role as the Manager of Islington Museum & Archives. I’m particularly interested in the development of oral history in Northern Ireland, social remembering and forgetting, and the use of oral testimony in the developing practice of vernacular history. I maintain a strong connection to the Oral History Network of Ireland and am a member of Oral History NSW.