Toward an Archival Reckoning

Farmer, Ashley D.; Booth, Steven D; Drake, Tracy; Flores-Clemons, Raquel; Glasco, Erin; Hearn, Skyla S; Williams, S. D.

doi:10.1093/ahr/rhac161

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Verne Harris advocates for decolonizing archival practices with a shift from neutrality to accountability; by acknowledging the biases and power dynamics that shape the archive, the field can actively work toward more inclusive and just archival practices (Harris, 2007). Stacie Williams explores the decolonization of archives through a critical race and social justice lens, emphasizing the importance of community engagement, reparative practices, and the recognition of the archive's role in shaping collective memory (Farmer et al, 2022). 5 Decolonizing the Archive has also suggested new archival research methodologies, with very real implication for decentering Eurocentrism in the archive.…”

Section: E N Dno T E Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Excavating Whiteness in the African Archive: The Story of Amandus Johnson's 1920s Expedition to Angola for the Penn Museum

Scott

2024

Museum Anthropology

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As we further seek to “decolonize” museum images of Africa, the museum archives of African Collections—the correspondence, ledgers, diaries, photographs, and other documents of White explorers working in Africa—suture the colonial practices that produced ways of seeing Africa—and Blackness more broadly—back onto the objects that museums maintain and display today. As increasing scholarly attention seeks to rectify the anti‐Black colonial violence of the archive, this research aims to situate the pedestrian colonial ethnographic practices and spectacular African explorer mythmaking found in museum archives within the foundation of museum anthropology and the museum itself. It also looks to the possibilities of contemporary museum practice to reframe and repair colonial museum constructions of Africa.

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Section: E N Dno T E Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Excavating Whiteness in the African Archive: The Story of Amandus Johnson's 1920s Expedition to Angola for the Penn Museum

Scott

2024

Museum Anthropology

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“…Marika Cifor and Jamie A. Lee explain the ways that archival work has become subject to neoliberalist 'market metrics', citing 'new emphases within the administration of public institutions on "cost efficiency" and "profitableness"'. 43 Raquel Flores-Clemons discusses the difficulties of 'keep[ing] a people-first approach' in institutional settings 'because you have to prioritize the needs of the organization that holds the collection', 44 while Michelle Caswell, Alda Allina Migoni, Noah Geraci and Marika Cifor show in their research on the affective impact of community archives that these types of metrics are affecting not only public institutions but also community-driven archival efforts, where community archives are 'increasingly forced to articulate their value in tangible -and often quantitative -ways to funders in the prevalent neoliberal frameworks'. 45 Within these neoliberal frameworks, time that does not lead directly to tangible returns in terms of number of accessions or linear metres processed -in other words time that cannot be measured in direct outcome -may be considered wasted, inefficiently spent and/or non-fundable; however, participants in this research project identified time spent building relationships as an integral part of archival work.…”

Section: Measuring 'Success'mentioning

confidence: 99%

On ‘Holding the Process’: Paying Attention to the Relations Side of Donor Relations

Douglas

2023

A&M

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This article reports on a series of interviews with archivists and recordkeepers conducted as part of a larger project exploring relationships between grief and recordkeeping. Though the interviews were not explicitly focused on donor relations, it emerged that the relationship between archivists and donors was a particularly emotionally charged one: interview participants described deep and complex relationships with donors, whom they often knew over a long period and through difficult or complicated times. Interview participants also reported feeling unprepared for this emotional work. This article responds to a perceived lack of attention paid to donor relations in archival theory and education by acknowledging the significance of donor stories, feelings and relationships. Aligned with the ever-growing emphasis in archival theory and praxis on person-centered approaches, the article suggests where such approaches are needed in relation to archival education and training, the collection and preservation of donor stories, relationship-building, and recognition of different kinds of archival labor.

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Toward an Archival Reckoning

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Excavating Whiteness in the African Archive: The Story of Amandus Johnson's 1920s Expedition to Angola for the Penn Museum

Excavating Whiteness in the African Archive: The Story of Amandus Johnson's 1920s Expedition to Angola for the Penn Museum

On ‘Holding the Process’: Paying Attention to the Relations Side of Donor Relations

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