The Interview Process

The interview process seemed very new to me since the last time I had done an interview was when I was a child and I had just received my first tape recorder. I decided I would need to set up an interview strategy. This strategy included sending out a preemptive letter and a list of possible questions that I was going to ask to help my interviewee be better prepared for the interview. Doing this also gave me a better idea of the type of follow up questions I would need to ask.

The actual interviews all went differently with my first interview being more reserved as my subject decided that the use of a voice recorder made them nervous and they had most of what they wanted to say already written out. By the end of the interview the subject had loosened up and it seemed more like a conversation and I was able to ask some follow up questions to verify some of the answers they had written down. The next two interviews went very well and both subjects opened up and gave me some really good answers. I expected this from the Art History professor and most everything he said was like gold to me and very quotable. The other professors comments were of a more personal nature about how the trip had affected him almost in a spiritual way.

The last interview I did was with a graduate student who had traveled on his own for an independent study and his input was also very interesting. At first I had only wanted to interview professors but after much vacillating by one of the professors on whether they would be available or not, I decided the viewpoint of a student would be interesting.

Overall the whole process went well and everyone seemed comfortable talking about the subject which is good since we all have the same interest in art. The most interesting part was that everyone also agreed that Julius II was the most important pope of that time period and for the same reasons.