Paul Thompson is Professor Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Essex and a Research Fellow at the Young Foundation. He is Founder-Editor of Oral History and Founder of the National Life Story Collection at the British Library. He is a pioneer of oral history in Europe and author of the international classic The Voice of the Past. His other books include The Edwardians and Living the Fishing. He is co-author of Pathways to Social Class and Growing Up in Stepfamilies, and most recently, Jamaican Hands Across the Atlantic.

At the seminar, Professor Thompson will share his research in the last ten years. Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, Honorary Associate Professor and Senior Consultant of the Hong Kong Memory Project, will also speak about the Hong Kong Oral History Archive Project that the Centre of Asian Studies undertook during 2001-2004. The seminar shall provide a forum for oral history researchers to share and exchange their experience with Professor Paul Thompson, the pioneer in oral history.