Hearing Silence: Teaching and Studying the Politics of Qualitative Interviewing

When conducting qualitative interviews, researchers are ready to hear informants' narratives that align with common assumptions, idiosyncratic concepts, or their own theoretical frameworks. Accounts falling outside these pre-existing boundaries become inaudible and overlooked. This presentation posits that spoken and unspoken silences are hidden treasures. I will illustrate the strategies I've developed to help students recognize the mechanisms of silencing and hear these silenced accounts. I will also use the empirical case of China’s Great Leap Forward and Great Famine (1958-1962) to show the silences that arise from the challenges of accessing archival data and engaging with survivors of traumatic historical events. I will demonstrate how, despite these obstacles, it is possible to uncover a locally grounded lexicon of discontent through a secondary analysis of survivor interviews. Ultimately, I argue that the ability to hear silence is not only indispensable in academic pursuits but also essential in everyday life.