Archival interventions: Anti-violence and social justice work in community contexts

Abstract

This panel invites participants and panelists to consider together how archives and other information institutions might work with and engage communities experiencing ongoing and extreme (neo)colonial violence and oppression. We begin from a perspective that suggests that community and/or autonomous archives that reflect community perspectives and histories may indeed have the potential to support the efforts of these same communities to grapple with complex and violent (neo)colonial histories and experiences and to re-story dominant narratives that serve to stigmatize and marginalize them. This panel explores both the possibilities and limitations of antiviolence archival interventions from a number of angles, including: interrogating the role of the archivist in community archiving; reflecting on how partnerships can be built between archival institutions and communities; and considering how anti-violence, anti-racist, decolonizing, and feminist theoretical frameworks can aid archival interventions that speak to the efforts of communities aimed at overcoming structural violence and erasure. Drawing on the archival experiences and practice of panelists, this panel poses a series of questions to the audience to generate discussions aimed at drawing connections between relevant theories, and practical and technical considerations in the service of anti-violence archiving.