Oral History Digital Database

The Digital Oral History Database was established to preserve, organize, and make accessible, for research and educational purposes, the memories and narratives of people who have experienced crises, particularly forced displacement.

The database is built upon the research project Virtual Artsakh: A Digital Oral History Database (2024–2026), implemented by the project team. The project's aim is to record, preserve, and archive oral histories documenting the history, everyday life, and intangible cultural heritage of Artsakh over at least the last three decades. The project is carried out by a group of researchers from the Hazarashen Armenian Center for Ethnological Studies and the Departments of Cultural Anthropology and Applied Ethnology of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia, with the support of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Within the framework of the Crisis and Memory: Digital Oral History Laboratory program, the database continues to expand, with a particular focus on oral histories concerning the blockade of Artsakh that began in 2022, the forced displacement of Artsakh Armenians in 2023, and experiences of post-displacement integration.

Given the sensitive nature of the collected materials and the need to protect personal data, the platform is currently not publicly accessible. At the same time, different approaches to access and use are being developed in order to ensure both the research value of the materials and compliance with ethical and legal standards.

One of the key features of the database is its classification and search toolkit, which enables users to search materials according to a wide range of metadata, including age group, gender, place of residence, thematic codes, dialect, and other categories. Advanced search functionality allows users to search across the entire collection by sentences, words, and word stems, while also generating statistical information related to search results.

An important component of the project is the digital processing and research application of field materials. To this end, we collaborate with the Center of Advanced Software Technologies (CAST), which develops and applies AI-based Armenian speech technologies for speech-to-text and text-to-speech conversion. The audio recordings collected within the project and their transcriptions contribute to the further development and improvement of these technologies. In turn, their integration into the database enables more efficient transcription and processing of the oral history recordings in our collection. In addition, the database is being equipped with a text-audio alignment tool, allowing users to work simultaneously with the textual and audio versions of interviews.

The project is also developing a set of ethical and legal documents related to the institutionalization of the database and the preservation and use of its materials. These documents will regulate the future processes of collection submission, access, and use.

At present, the database contains approximately 160 oral history interviews, which are currently undergoing transcription, coding, alignment, and database integration.

Over time, the database will also be expanded with collections gathered through other research projects conducted at the Institute. These materials address topics such as political repression during the Soviet period, the social crisis of the 1990s, and other experiences of crisis and social transformation.