In 2012 researchers at the NOH archives of the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology at the University of Latvia in collaboration with Vieda Shelley (Skultans) from University of Bristol have elaborated and received support for research project “Ethnic and Narrative Diversity in the Construction in Life Stories in Latvia” (2013-2016). The project anticipates a study about the individual experience, collective memory, and narrative traditions of ethnic groups and their influence on Latvian society and culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.

The scientific goals of the study are (1) to examine the structure and content of narratives from a variety of ethnic groups in order to determine how the realization of memories differs or overlaps across the various ethnic and gender groups; (2) to study narratives about various historical periods in the collective memories of different ethnic groups in order to determine the socially significant structures and content of memories; (3) to define the narrative forms that are available to the narrators and that structure the content of the story; (4) to secure the use of oral history in the promotion of understanding and tolerance within the community as well as in the analysis of current social problems and in the search for solutions to them; and (5) to develop, supplement, and modernize the National Oral History (NOH) archive collections and e-database.

It is planned to carry out biographical interviews concentrating on events an individual has personally experienced and that reveal to the researcher both the narrator\'s identity and world view as well as the manner in which this experience is recreated in a story. In other words, how the life story is involved in the structuring of social representation. The project is going to focus on three ethnic groups residing in Latvia – Romany, Russian, and Latvian – because the individual and collective experiences of these groups will reveal and illustrate the interaction between private and public/shared memories. These three groups also have different social, historical, and cultural experiences, thereby allowing them to be contrasted and compared.

This project corresponds to the goal of basic and applied research projects put forth by the Latvian Council of Science to foster the creation of new knowledge from a variety of aspects. First, it creates new knowledge about the narrative culture of ethnic groups living in Latvia. Second, the project encourages the creation of new knowledge regarding oral history as a research resource and method in the social and humanitarian sciences in Latvia.

The main result expected from the project is a theoretically based study of individual and collective memory, which will further be used in educating and informing the public about the social interaction of individuals and ethnic groups on both a personal as well as group level.