Conversation with Cordelia Oliver

Unidentified male interviewer (possibly Neil Rafeek) in conversation with Cordelia Oliver, Glasgow, 3 May 2005.
- sound recording (1h 33m 21s) and transcript

Neil Rafeek was born in London, the middle of three brothers. His father Taureq Rafeek was a town planner and the family regularly moved with his work. From London they moved to Bristol, then Edinburgh (where Neil attended primary school), then Sunderland. Neil Rafeek's experience at secondary school there prevented him from successfully completing his early education. Leaving with just one O-level, he entered the building trade to train as a bricklayer. Subsequently he enrolled at the University of Strathclyde as a mature student and went on to do a PhD on women in the Communist party in Scotland 1920-1991 (1998). It was the first oral history based PhD awarded in the Department of History. Rafeek actively helped to build, manage and run the Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC) at Strathclyde.

The Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC) was set up within the Department of History at the University of Strathclyde in 1995. Since its foundation the SOHC has been involved in a wide range of teaching, research and outreach activities designed primarily to encourage the use of ‘best practice’ oral history methodology in Scotland. Until 2005, the SOHC was directed by Professor Callum Brown, since then by Professor Arthur McIvor.

Restricted. Please contact University of Strathclyde Archives to enquire about access.

Neil Rafeek was born in London, the middle of three brothers. His father Taureq Rafeek was a town planner and the family regularly moved with his work. From London they moved to Bristol, then Edinburgh (where Neil attended primary school), then Sunderland. Neil Rafeek's experience at secondary school there prevented him from successfully completing his early education. Leaving with just one O-level, he entered the building trade to train as a bricklayer. Subsequently he enrolled at the University of Strathclyde as a mature student and went on to do a PhD on women in the Communist party in Scotland 1920-1991 (1998). It was the first oral history based PhD awarded in the Department of History. Rafeek actively helped to build, manage and run the Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC) at Strathclyde.

The Scottish Oral History Centre (SOHC) was set up within the Department of History at the University of Strathclyde in 1995. Since its foundation the SOHC has been involved in a wide range of teaching, research and outreach activities designed primarily to encourage the use of ‘best practice’ oral history methodology in Scotland. Until 2005, the SOHC was directed by Professor Callum Brown, since then by Professor Arthur McIvor.

Created by Anna-K Mayer, 2 February 2017

Tape 253. Currently located at Baird 27.1-27-3./akm January 2017

Consent form is missing/akm January 2017

2017-2-2 enquired with A McIvor: who is interviewer: R Johnston? N Rafeek?/ akm

Transferred from SOHC during 2015 and 2016. No SOHC Archive ID had previously been assigned to this recording. The original recordings was made in 2005 using a cassette recorder. In 2016, it was digitised to uncompressed, unaltered 24 bit/96kHz BWF format (for preservation) with 16bit/48kHz MP3 surrogates (for access). It was also transcribed.

This item is part of the Scottish Oral History Centre Archive.

published