Critical Feminism in the Archives

Abstract

Through the use of feminist historiography this article examines some of the myriad ways in which feminist praxis has pushed against, challenged, enriched, dismantled, assimilated or otherwise affected archival theory and practice. We contend that archival theory and practice have yet to fully engage with a feminist praxis that is aimed at more than attaining better representation of women in archives. We begin this piece by tracing the ways in which archives became embedded in feminist social movements and can be understood as critical tools and modes of self-representation and self-historicization. In the second section, we consider the explicit presence of feminist theory in archival studies literature and contemporary practice and the key focal points and arguments that have challenged traditional understandings of archival work around gender. We then address, in the third section, the expansive figure of the archives in humanities and social science literature. This piece contributes significantly to thinking on the ways in which these conversations in the archival turn can, at their best, expose blind spots within the archival literature and provide us with theoretical tools to tackle what we take for granted. Finally, we offer ways in which we see critical and intersectional feminist theory can contribute to existing archival discourse and practice, critiquing concepts that have remained unquestioned such as community and organization. This piece exposes the transformational potential of feminism for archives and of archives for dismantling the heteronormative, capitalist and racist patriarchy.

Archival Experiments, Notes and (Dis)orientations

“…Archival studies have been challenged by feminist engagements, which address the lack of representation of women and sexuality within the archive. These conversations have tended to focus on the exclusions of white cis-gendered women (Eichhorn, 2013; Cifor and Wood, 2017). Historically, community or institutional women’s archives coming out of the white feminist movement resulted in archival infrastructures built with white, cis-gendered, able-bodied women in mind (Kumbier, 2014).…”

Sister Outsider and Audre Lorde in the Netherlands: On Transnational Queer Feminisms and Archival Methodological Practices

“…Archival methods and methodologies are central to feminist research because they evoke questions on what archives are and do for feminist and queer knowledge production. Scholars have called for archival theory and practice to more firmly engage with feminist practice to ensure an adequate representation of women in archives (Cifor and Wood, 2017). Recently, feminist archival scholarship has challenged traditional archival research through drawing on experimental approaches to methodology (Pester, 2017), the materiality of the archive and queer bodies (Cifor, 2017) and the need for an archival consciousness when dealing with the histories of Black feminists (Burin and Sowinski, 2014).…”

Uncertain Archives: Approaching the Unknowns, Errors, and Vulnerabilities of Big Data through Cultural Theories of the Archive

“…Such critical work would benefit highly from mutual dialogue between these disciplines. Critical archival science has been pivotal in questioning archival praxis through the lenses of feminist, queer, post-, and decolonial studies, drawing attention to affective responsibilities in archival practice, the often invisible labour of archivists, the materiality of digital archives, the ethical challenges of archiving sensitive material, the need for collective work with marginalised and vulnerable communities, and the relevance of archives for human rights, social justice, and care (Caswell and Cifor 2016;Cifor and Wood 2017;Caswell, Punzalan, and Sangwand 2017;Sutherland 2017a). These critiques of archival reason and practice can be mobilised towards a critical analysis of big data's repositories: they show that the piecing together of information is not a neutral pursuit, both capture and exclusion have important ethical consequences, and archives are always contested sites of power, knowledge, possibility, and aspiration.…”