Hasan Karayam January 6, 2013 History Department Residency Proposal I am going to spend my residency year at the Center for

Libyan Archives and Historical Studies, which is located in Tripoli, Libya. It is the most important and the biggest national archive in Libya. It has a main branch in Benghazi (the second largest city in Libya). Initially, it was founded in 1977 as a special research center for the Italian colonization period 1911-1943. Then, it was expanded to be the archival center for the modern history of Libya. The current center is divided into six divisions: oral narratives, documents and manuscripts, press and publications, historical maps, library, research and studies, and archive and documents. The center represents the main national archive in Libya, and it is the first destination of different audiences, including scholars, students, public, and veterans who are concerned about the cultural heritage of Libya in modern times. The objective of its policy is to preserve and study the historical materials in different forms, including documents, photographs, documentary films, and historical maps. The center contains more than one million documents and seventy thousand narratives. Academically, the center is under supervision of Tripoli University. The Division of Oral Narrative is the earliest major section at the center. It contains about 8,263 tapes that encompass more than 70,000 interviews that present the modern history of Libya and relevant aspects of military, political, economic, social, and cultural life throughout the twentieth century. The oral narrative division has special oral collections about the colonial period as well as the post-colonial period. For example, collections have been gathered over the last three decades with leaders and veterans about the numerous campaigns during the Libyan struggle against Italian occupation, and other collections contain interviews with veterans who

participated in World War II on Libyan battlefields. Libyan culture is highlighted in a large number of these collections, including biography, religion, and many different aspects of life in Libya. So, this section plays a big role in documenting much of Libyan history and preserving this legacy for users and future generations. My professional mentor is Professor Mohammed T. Jerary, Director of the Center for Libyan Archives and Historical Studies. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1972 with his masters degree and again in 1976 with his PhD in Ancient history of Libya. He is one of few who founded the center then he has been directed it since 1977 until today. He has written enormous valuable works (article and books) in both public history and traditional history in different language (Arabic, English, and French). He is member in many historical and cultural organizations in Libya and abroad. During the last three decades, he plays crucial role to preserve cultural heritage of Libya ex-offico in the center and his efforts to return many of what had stolen in colonial and post colonial periods. He was ahead for many campaigns to document Libyan history in different forms (written, oral, photography). Also Mr. Ismail Mohamed Ekharzah, Director of Narrative Division, will be the second mentor for interviews according to Libyan standard in conducting interviews. He has perfect experience for 30 years at the narrative division since 1981. He gets his M.A in modern history of Libya in 1995. He plays his role to documented colonial history of Libya through the oral history in the last century. He regarded the first specialist at the center in oral history and has good experience in conducting interviews and translating them. For my training at the Center for Libyan Archives and Historical Studies, I am going to work full-time job in the Oral Narrative Division conducting oral histories during the spring and summer semesters. My primary assignment will be to work with the specialists in the oral

narrative division to understand the nature of their technical work, especially in terms of how they arrange and preserve the collections of oral history. After this orientation, I will participate in the centers campaign to conduct interviews about the political situation of Libya in the second half of the twentieth century. I will engage in this work under the supervision of the specialists in the oral narratives division. So, I will conduct ten interviews with veterans and politicians according to standard at the division then I have to transcript all interviews to English language. Also, as part of my job, I am going to transcript interviews which had done by the division then sort each interviews according to its date and subject to add to the collection of the division. As well as I am going to review some interviews that hard slang in terms of language and voices in different areas, because there are several informal Arabic slangs which not every Libyan can understand them, especially most the interviews at the division conducted with old people. In addition to my participation in this oral history project, I am going to do my project plan about the challenges that facing the production of oral history about the 1950s and 1960s and the importance of these primary historical sources for interpreting the history of this period. During the Qaddafi regime, serious historical research on this era was demonized, and therefore the historiography has withered due to lack of attention. Therefore, I am also going to conduct several interviews that will serve as primary sources for my dissertation on Libyan-American relations from 1951 to 1969. To this end, I will prepare my questions for these interviews in consultation with my professional mentor and the people who will be interviewed. This project will help me to develop my dissertation proposal and will serve as a rich archival experience during my residency. I will focus on recognized politicians of that period who worked in the diplomatic field, including Mustafa Bin Halim (Libyan Prime Minister, 1951-57), ambassadors,

and others engaged in the political and diplomatic life of the 1950s and 1960s in Libya.

Bibliography Note: there are some references in Arabic language that help to expand in local cultures for transcription interviews. David Henige, Oral Historiography (Longman: NY, 1982). Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes (editors), Oral History and Public Memories (Temple University Press: PA, 2008) Ronald Bruce St. John, Libya and the United States: Two Centuries of Strife (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002) Majid Khadduri, Modern Libya: A Study in Political Development (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1963) Ali Ahmida, Forgotten Voices: Power and Agency in Colonial and Postcolonial Libya, (Rutledge press, 2005) Geoff Simons, Libya and the West: From Independence to Lockerbie (Oxford: Center for Libyan Studies, 2003) Dirk Vandewalle, A History of Modern Libya (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006) Veronica Nmoma, Power and Forces: Libyas Relations with the United States Journal of Third World Studies 26:2 (2009) Oral History Association website, http://www.oralhistory.org/ International Oral History Association, http://www.iohanet.org/