1. Marina Morgenshtern Dr. Shoshana Pollack Faculty of Social Work, WLU
A FUSION OF TESTIMONIO AND ORAL HISTORY METHODOLOGIES: A CRITICAL COLLECTIVE WITNESSING OF IMMIGRANT COUPLES’ STORIES
This presentation is based on the PhD research proposal of Marina Morgenshtern. I am grateful to Dr. Shoshana Pollack, my supervisor, for being an invaluable resource both in thinking through the project and in preparing this paper, for introducing the ideas of intersectionality to me and helping me to get my head around these notions, for contributing her critical thinking and developing mine, as well as for support, inspiration and challenge.
Marina Morgenshtern
Dr. Shoshana Pollack
Faculty of Social Work, WLU

2. Fusion of Testimonio and Oral History
a way of conducting feminist intersectional research
to witness socio-political family stories of Jewish immigrant couples from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Toronto
to make visible ways in which systemic issues & dominant discourses (patriarchy, heterosexism, discourses about Jews, former Soviets and immigrants, Multiculturalism) impact relational dynamics of immigrant couples.
The presentation examines the use of the fusion of Testimonio and Oral History qualitative methods as a way of conducting feminist intersectional research to witness the lived realities of Jewish immigrant couples from the former Soviet Union (FSU) in Toronto. Indeed, this unique research methodology aims to make visible the ways in which systemic issues and dominant discourses, such as patriarchy, heterosexism and discourses about Jews, former Soviets and immigrants, as well as the rhetoric of Multiculturalism, impact the relational dynamics of immigrant couples.

3. Researcher Immigrant twice-over Jewish Heterosexual Woman Married
Mother of 2 children
Social worker experienced in work with immigrant & ethnic minority families in Israel
PhD Candidate in WLU Canada
Both the research question and the methodology I have chosen are closely tied to my life experiences and I thus wish to explicitly declare my social location. I am a heterosexual married woman, who is the mother of two children. I am Jewish, and an immigrant twice over, first having moved with my family of origin from Russia to Israel, and then having moved with my husband and children to Canada. I am also a social worker, who in Israel gained experience in working with immigrant & ethnic minority families. Currently I am a Ph.D. student at Wilfrid Laurier University.

4. Rationale Full range of migrant populations not considered
Couple dynamics not linked to experiences of interlocking systems of oppression & privilege
Immigrants not allowed to define what matters to them about their immigrant experience.
Missing exploration of agency, determination, activeness, creativity & mindfulness of immigrant couples’ practices of adaptation & resistance to adversity of immigrant experience
Research gaps have also contributed to the rationale for my research question and methodology. Firstly, the research on immigrants, particularly the Anglo-American literature, tends not to consider the full range of migrant populations, being focused on refugees or (undocumented) immigrants of color. The experiences of groups privileged in terms of race, professionalism and legal status are not investigated. Thus, the ability to generate a more comprehensive theory that addresses the experience of immigrant couples from a more inclusive set of class, cultural, religious and racial origins and contexts is limited. Secondly, this body of research does not link couple dynamics to experiences of interlocking systems of oppression and privilege. Thirdly, the literature tends to talk about immigrant experiences without allowing immigrants themselves to define what matters to them about their immigrant experience. Finally, the exploration of agency, determination, activeness, creativity and mindfulness of immigrant couples’ practices of adaptation and resistance to the adversity of the immigrant experience is overlooked. These are all issues that I wish to address in my study.

5. Background of Problem
Transnational feminism & discourse on marginalized masculinities: socio-political context; intersections of dimensions of power
Family therapy literature on immigrant families: individual immigrant experience
Research on Soviet Jewish immigrants’ integration in Canada: who & what
Several bodies of literature inform this study, including transnational feminist discourse, the discourse of marginalized masculinities, family therapy literature and literature regarding former Soviet Jewish immigrants.
Transnational feminist discourse and the discourse of marginalized masculinities inform the understanding of the social construction of femininities and masculinities of immigrants and ethnic minorities, as well as the broad socio-political context of their lives. These discourses employ a feminist intersectional lens focusing on the social structure that shapes experiences and meanings; defines and locates economic and social rewards; and introduces issues of power and the ways some groups in society are positioned to control other groups (Dua, 1999; Mohanty, 2003; Razack, 2000; Zinn, 1990).

6. Research Objectives How Soviet Jewish immigrants couples
witness & understand individual & collective experiences of immigration
experience & negotiate issues of gender & power
engage in process of defining relationship in face of adversity
employ resistance practices to deal with adversity of Jewish immigrant experience
I would like now to focus on the research methodology chosen to explore how Soviet Jewish immigrants couples witness and understand individual and collective experiences of immigration; experience and negotiate issues of gender and power; engage in the process of defining relationship in face of adversity; and employ resistance practices to deal with the adversity of Jewish immigrant experience.

7. Research Methodology Qualitative: complexity of lived experience
Feminist, directed by intersectional analysis of inequality
Fusion of Testimonio & Oral Histories

8. Intersectional Research (Weber, 2004)
Avoids universalizing language & meanings; works with dynamic, fluid definitions, theories & labels
Uncovers ways individuals’ lives are gendered, classed, racialized, ethnicized & sexualized
Sees inequalities as systems of relational power, examines both oppression & privilege
Examines structural dimensions in social structure (macro) & social psychological (micro) contexts
Goal: Make knowledge of marginalized groups visible & valid; empower; challenge domination
Authors such as Baca Zinn, 1990, 1982; Hill Collins, 1998; Fellows & Razack, 1998; Dua, 1999; Hesse-Biber & Yaiser, 2004; Mohanty, 2003 suggest that various categories such as gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, and nationality are socially constructed by the dominant group to maintain its own dominance. Built on this premise, intersectional research avoids universalizing language and meanings and works with dynamic, fluid definitions, theories and labels. It uncovers ways individuals’ lives are gendered, classed, racialized, ethnicized and sexualized, and sees inequalities as systems of relational power, examining both oppression and privilege (Weber, 2004). Further, it examines structural dimensions in social structure (macro) and social psychological (micro) contexts, with the intent of making the knowledge of marginalized groups visible and valid; empowering them; and facilitating a challenge of domination, thus emphasizing the interdependence of knowledge and activism. This framework is useful in my study as it allows me as a researcher to consider a range of factors that contribute to the quality of couple relationships for Soviet Jewish immigrants without attempting to equalize or homogenize their lived realities.

9. Oral Histories
Reflects past & present experiences of marginalized, unheard individuals & groups from their point of view
Uses oral narratives where written history absent
Contributes to social justice
Limitation: personal story is not contextualized within social conditions
Oral History has typically been utilized to reflect the experiences of marginalized groups, particularly where written records are absent; there has been a tradition of passing down history through verbal narratives; and there is a concern that cultural information will be lost. Feminist Oral History is used to develop feminist theory, explore the meanings of events in the eyes of women and men, facilitate understanding among social classes, contribute to social justice and to “right the injustice” (Reinharz, 1992) of a particular person’s or group’s voice being unheard (Gluck & Patai, 1991; Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2006; Reinharz, 1992).
This method is a collaborative approach between the researcher and oral historians that allows for the co-creation of a life history. The researcher may choose to structure the narrative by asking particular questions, or may simply invite the oral historian to talk about a particular circumstance or story.
One of the limitations of the Oral History method is that the individual’s experience may be reflected without necessarily contextualizing this personal story within social conditions that influence and shape the narratives. While reading a personal story is important, the personalized form of the story may “detract from our ability to develop a socio-political understanding of events and forces” (Reinharz, 1992, p. 137).

10. Testimonio Rooted in South American social liberation movements
Witnessing & validation of collective memory, naming oppression & resistance to oppression
Shift from individual to community of witness
Reclaiming voice of silenced – challenging dominant knowledge
Redefining reality - regaining power & agency; leads to conscientization & action
Researcher as a facilitator, not expert
Allows narratives to speak for themselves
Testimonio, a participatory and emancipatory research approach called by Tierney (2003) a critical life history fills this gap. Testimonio is an indigenous literary genre that was developed out of the era of extreme oppression in South America in the late sixties and has its roots in liberation social movements (Brabeck, 2001). As acts of resistance, persons who had been silenced began reclaiming their voices and their right to speak, naming their oppression, identifying patterns and social systems of oppression, and testifying to their own authentic stories as witnesses to collective memory and identity (Yudice, 1991). The truth is presented by the witness to set aright official history (Pakman, 2004; Yudice, 1985). The authority of first person author, characteristic of any other form of storytelling, is replaced by the common “we” and symbolizes the move “from bourgeois individual to a community of witness” (Brabeck, 2001, p.5) and a sense of belonging to community. Therefore, the representation of the collective experience of resisting oppression (and NOT an individualistic motivation) is central to the method of Testimonio (Beverley, 1992; Brabeck, 2001).
In Testimonio traditionally marginalized peoples, who once were the object of anthropological and psychological study, write and speak for themselves, insisting on being subjects (Burgos-Debray & Menchu, 1984). The intention is not only to conscientize through research, but for research participants to develop action based on this new knowledge (Tierney, 2003), while also signaling to the oppressor that no one can be permanently silenced. Testimonio challenges the conventions of what constitutes knowledge and who has the ability to produce it. Rather than reinforcing the role of ‘experts’ and ‘scientists’ in the production of knowledge, testimonio stresses the validity of lived experience, offering a way of re-theorizing and re-creating knowledge based on a strategy of cultural survival and resistance to colonization (Brabeck, 2004; 2003; 2001). Further, the speaker of testimony redefines reality and promotes a new understanding of objective conditions through use of her/his own standards of legitimacy (Aron, 1992). (S)he regains power and agency as the responsibility for injustice is placed “on the shoulders of those to whom it belongs, alleviating the guilt and shame of the speaker” (Brabeck, 2001).
In such a scenario, the researcher is less central, taking on the role of facilitator, rather than articulating insights or developing theories him/herself. The stories are not analyzed, as the very act of analysis is seen as diminishing the voices of the participants and of overlaying their experiences with that of the expert narrative, and of substituting the researcher’s opinion for the lived reality of the subject. Testimonio is regarded by many scholars as the least overtly intrusive and “the most indigenously derived of the qualitative techniques” (Tierney, 2003, p.296).

11. Combination of Testimonio & Oral History – Why?
Offers complex view
Allows re-appropriation of voices & agency
Individual story part of collective reality
Identifying connections between experiences & structural conditions
Collaboration (speaking with and for)
An integrated use of Oral History and Testimonio is appealing to me. Such testimonies allow the participants’ voices to be heard and also for a complex view to be presented. Hence, this methodology will allow immigrant Soviet Jewish couples to present themselves in their wholeness, richness and multidimensionality. Thus, I wish to facilitate the inclusion of Soviet Jewish immigrants’ voices, and by the virtue of the re-appropriation of their voices and agency to contribute to the production of knowledge. Further, it is the “social urgency” character of Testimonio, its concern with changing oppressive structures, and its ability to tell an individual story as a part of the collectively experienced reality that appeal to me. Each story told by the participants is a part of the collective story of Jewish exodus and exile from the former Soviet Union. It is also a part of the collective story of Soviet Jewish immigrants rebuilding life in Canada. This collective nature of constructing a common story is also part of Oral History. Participants are thus encouraged to think of themselves not only individually but as part of a larger collective, and to identify the connections between their own experiences and structural conditions, rather than adopting an individualistic blaming Western lens. This may further allow partners to sit and talk about “how we are going to resist it together” instead of engaging in mutual blaming of each other as “a failure” or “not worthy enough”. Finally, Tesimonio and Oral History promote collaboration with participants, which coincides with my values as a feminist researcher, allowing me to speak with the participants and for them.
In summary, the use of Feminist Oral History and Testimonio allows research participants to speak authentically from their own position of oppression and to speak to their collective reality and history. The fusion of these two methods will allow both for ‘eyewitness accounts’ of the experiences of Soviet Jewish couples’ immigration to Canada and for couples’ interpretations of these experiences, thus honoring their views and contesting master narratives, and will generate scholarly attention to the differences that overlapping gender, race, nationality, religion, class, immigrant status and sexual orientation make.
How do I see this fusion working?

12. How Is It Implemented? Wide heterogeneous sampling strategy
Multi-staged data collection
Narrative and Intersectional data analysis
Sampling Procedures
Ten to twelve Jewish immigrant couples form the former Soviet Union will participate in the study. The couples who have immigrated to Canada will need to have had at least 5 years of residence in Canada to ensure that participants can be somewhat retrospective about their experiences. Having been in Canada for a few years these couples have assumedly negotiated a range of challenges and have reached a degree of stability in their relationship. They thus have more distance and ability to analyze the dynamics between them and the influence of immigration on this than a newly arrived couple. This is the only criteria I will use for sampling. I would like also to ensure the heterogeneity of my sample, by attempting to recruit participants through different places and by different means: Russian flyers will be put in various popular spots in the Russian Jewish community, in the office of JFCS (Jewish Family and Child Services); I will also advertise the study in free Russian newspapers/magazines and will use referrals to extend the sampling strategy.

13. Data collection – Stage 1
Testimonial interviews on experiences of Soviet Jews in former Soviet Union & Canada:
Can you talk about experiences of former Soviet Jews who immigrated to Canada? What was their situation like in FSU? What do you think it is like for them in Toronto?
What do you see as relational challenges or issues experienced by former Soviet Jewish immigrant couples in FSU and Canada?
The first phase of the data collection process will consist of testimonial interviews regarding the experiences of Soviet Jews in the former Soviet Union and Canada. The goal of this phase is to elicit witness information for the construction of the polyphonic Testimonio of the complex experiences of Jewish community in Soviet Union and Canada, and relational issues of Jewish couples as informed by these experiences. These interviews will become the contextual backdrop against which the next phase of the interviews will be conducted. Two to three couples will be asked two main questions:
Can you talk about the experiences of former Soviet Jews who immigrated to Canada? What was their situation like in FSU? What do you think it is like for them in Toronto?
What do you see as the relational challenges or issues experienced by former Soviet Jewish immigrant couples in FSU and Canada?
Possible probes may include the examination of the systemic issues and structural conditions that come into play in the discussion of immigration journey of Jews from the former USSR to Canada; i.e. place FSJ community occupies within Canadian Jewish community and vis-à-vis mainstream society; participants’ understanding of Jewishness in FSU and Canada and how these social and political contexts influence men’s and women’s experiences and couple relationship; as well as the experiences of resistance to possible injustices experienced by this group of Jews in the different socio-political contexts of their lives.

14. Data Collection – Stage 2
Couples’ personal experiences of immigration:
Tell me the story of your relationship before and after immigration;
What helps/ed you, as a couple, to survive hardships of immigration & building life in Canada?
The next phase of the data collection will include interviews of couples’ personal experiences of immigration. I will use a summary of the testimonial constructed in the first stage of the data collection process and ask the participants to respond to it. I will move on to the exploration of the impact of immigration on their couple relationship to get at issues of agency, masculinity/femininity, structural barriers, inter-group (relationship between dominant Jewish community and Soviet Jewish immigrant community) and class issues. Each couple will be asked the following questions:
Tell me the story of your relationship before and after immigration.
What helps/ed you, as a couple, to survive the hardships of the immigration and building life in Canada?
Probes may include the exploration of the changes in identities and roles couples lived through with the immigration to Canada, their personal experiences of securing employment, dealing with discrimination and their relationship with Jewish community; how these experiences influenced couple relationship and what practices of resistance were/are employed by couples to deal with encountered adversities.

15. Analysis Polyphonic testimonio Narrative analysis (Reissman, 1993)
Structural analysis to identify stories of each couple
Main themes connected with lived experiences & relational dynamics of participant couples identified
Intersectional feminist analysis (Cuadraz & Uttal, 1999 )
Examination of social location
Examination of structure
Analysis of structures in relation to one another
The first 2 to 3 interviews are Testimonios and will not be analyzed in accordance with the tradition of Testimonio. Instead, a polyphonic testimonio reflecting the voices of these particular participants will be constructed of these interviews to provide the background of the socio-political context of Soviet Jewish immigration to Canada since 1989.
The data collected during the second phase – interviews with couples – will be analyzed using elements of narrative analysis (Reissman, 1993) and strategies of feminist intersectional analysis (Cuadraz & Uttal, 1999). First, I will use structural analysis to identify stories of each couple to identify main themes to be connected with lived experiences and relational dynamics of the participant couples. Later stages of analysis move beyond the phenomenological description of immigrant couples experiences and meanings described by them (Cuadraz & Uttal, 1999). The couple’s stories are more than their memories. Ideological, social and cultural frames define how we see the past and construct our stories (Cuadraz & Uttal, 1999; Tierney, 2003). Thus, I would look at how the stories, views and issues that emerge from a collection of individual (couple) accounts are possibly shaped by participants’ social location as members of different kinds of groups defined by gender, class, ethnicity, immigrant status and sexual orientation. This step recognizes that the couples’ understanding of their experiences is shaped by particular social histories and material conditions organizing individual lives within particular social contexts (Cuadraz & Uttal, 1999). My intention is to interpret the relational dynamics of Soviet Jewish immigrant couples as they apply to gender, oppression, and power and how these are negotiated within the cultural socio-political contexts of their lives. Immigrant couples’ thick narratives regarding their relational dynamics will be positioned within two relevant contexts: the Soviet context in terms of Soviet family policy, ethnic politics and their impact on Soviet Jewish families as informing the forms of resistance emerged, the motivation to emigrate, the expectations of the new country and the challenges couples undergo with the immigration; and Canadian gender politics, immigration policies and multiculturalism influences on the process of integration. By doing this, I will be able to contextualize immigrant lives (the participants’ and my own), showing daily lives as “contextually located in history, place, and structured social relations” (Cuadraz & Uttal, 1999, p. 14; Hesse-Biber & Yaiser, 2004; Tierney, 2003). I will then move on to an examination of structure (patriarchy, neo-liberalism, anti-Semitism, anti-immigrant sentiment and heterosexism) and relational dynamics of the couples. I will look at each structure separately (e.g. how does gender inform this individual account?; how does class inform this individual account?; how does ethnicity inform this individual account?; how do discourses on immigrants inform this individual account? how do heterosexual discourses inform this individual account) and then analyze them in relation to one another, identifying when each structure seems to be relevant to understanding couple’s dynamics, and how they emerge and submerge in relationship to one another. In this way I will be able to recognize “how at different points in individual lives, the structures of domination have differential impact and salience, but do not disappear” (Cuadraz & Uttal, 1999, p.14).