Les archives hors des sentiers battus

Archives out of the Box: Innovating Methods for Critical and Creative Praxis


Call for Participants


8-9th December, University of Manchester, UK

We invite PGR and ECR applicants to our ESRC-funded methods workshop exploring critical, more-than-human, decolonial, multimodal, community-oriented approaches to archiving. Combining historical perspectives from Human Geography, Anthropology, and the Environmental Humanities, this two-day workshop will help participants translate theoretical insights into practical methodological tools and think with archives “outside of the box”.

Participants are invited to present an "archival puzzle": an object, image, absence, or contradiction that has challenged their archival journey. For instance, disruptive more-than-human agents or colonial planning failures might reveal how material conditions or marginalised actors shape social conditions but are hard to map using conventional archival practices.

How might we develop methodological practices and tools that attune us to these unaccounted-for forces, silences, and marginalised voices? How do we train ourselves to listen to and bring unruly archives to the fore?

Two themes of Archives Otherwise and Archiving as Future-Making will be explored in the workshop. The two-day event includes a keynote address by Dr Adom Philogene Heron (University of Bristol), a panel discussion with Professor Alison Browne (University of Manchester), Professor Deidre McKay (Keele University) and Dr Sally Cawood (Lancaster University) and a workshop with a local initiative to learn about community archiving centring marginalised histories. The workshop will conclude with hands-on exploration of multimodal methods to support participants in producing a zine to reflect on key themes.

How to apply: Please send us 250 words about your archival puzzle: what it is, where you encountered it, why it engaged you, and indicate some questions it brought up about silences, forces or actors. You may include up to 4 images which might show the object itself or gesture toward an absence or contradiction. We look forward to receiving your submission to archivesoutofthebox@manchester.ac.uk by 30th September and will confirm your place by 15th October.

Food is provided and includes a shared evening meal. Participants are encouraged to apply to their funder for travel and accommodation costs. We do however have a limited number of travel bursaries for applicants without funding access. Please indicate in your application if you require funding.

The event is organised by Purva Dewoolkar, Sharan Kaur, Uttara Narayan, Arianna Tozzi, at the University of Manchester.

This event is supported by the ESRC through Methods North West and the NWSSDTP.