Thurs­day, 09 April – Fri­day, 10 April
Leib­niz-Zen­trum Moder­ner Ori­ent
Kirch­weg 33
14129 Ber­lin

Abs­tract

From the fif­te­enth cen­tu­ry onward, Euro­pean colo­ni­al expan­si­on was inse­pa­ra­ble from prac­ti­ces of docu­men­ta­ti­on, clas­si­fi­ca­ti­on, and record-kee­ping that ren­de­red ter­ri­to­ries, peo­p­les, and non­hu­man life legi­ble to impe­ri­al regimes, giving rise to colo­ni­al archi­ves. Far from neu­tral repo­si­to­ries, the­se archi­ves func­tion­ed as epis­te­mic instru­ments that enab­led extra­c­tion, dis­pos­ses­si­on, and domi­na­ti­on, while simul­ta­neous­ly obscu­ring the phy­si­cal vio­lence through which they were con­ti­nuous­ly pro­du­ced and repro­du­ced. The records pre­ser­ved today—textual, audio-visu­al, oral, bota­ni­cal, zoo­lo­gi­cal, and digital—bear the traces of the­se pro­ces­ses, regis­tering not only admi­nis­tra­ti­ve con­trol and sci­en­ti­fic ambi­ti­on, but also loss, dis­pla­ce­ment, extinc­tion, and era­su­re. At the same time, colo­ni­al archi­ves remain deep­ly ambi­va­lent sites: while they have his­to­ri­cal­ly sta­bi­li­zed une­qual power rela­ti­ons and mar­gi­na­li­zed non-domi­nant forms of know­ledge, they also con­tain the docu­men­ta­ry con­di­ti­ons through which past inju­s­ti­ces can be tra­ced, con­tes­ted, and made visible. 

In this work­shop, we use vio­lence as an ana­ly­ti­cal lens to explo­re the ethi­cal, epis­te­mo­lo­gi­cal, and his­to­rio­gra­phi­cal chal­lenges of working with archi­val remains that are inse­pa­ra­ble from colo­ni­al domi­na­ti­on yet con­ti­nue to struc­tu­re con­tem­po­ra­ry rese­arch prac­ti­ces. By atten­ding to mate­ria­li­ty, sen­so­ry expe­ri­ence, spa­ti­al design, and archi­val media­ti­on, this work­shop also opens pos­si­bi­li­ties for cri­ti­cal­ly reim­agi­ning the archi­ve bey­ond its colo­ni­al lega­ci­es. During the work­shop, we will have group dis­cus­sions on published artic­les that are pro­vi­ded via a rea­der before­hand to fur­ther our under­stan­ding of the inex­tri­ca­ble ent­an­gle­ments of archi­ves, colo­nia­lism and vio­lence we encoun­ter in archi­val research.

You can find more infor­ma­ti­on and the pro­gram­me here.

If you want to attend, plea­se regis­ter at jannes.thode[at]zmo.de. After regis­tra­ti­on we will send you the reader.