Theorizing Archives and Decolonial Archival Work

In this course especially appropriate for students with Twilight Project and other archival experience, we will conceptualize archival research and what stories can be told through such work. This theorization of archival methodologies will, more importantly, critique the western colonial function of archive-keeping while reimagining the archives as sites of resistance toward the decolonization of historiography, knowledge, and beyond. As archives are not only something we study, but also something we make, we will examine the ethics of archiving and retrieving experiences of people marginalized by ongoing colonial systems. Through hands-on exercises, readings, and periodic meetings with Middlebury College’s archivists, students will learn to identify, organize, and interpret archives—paper-based, photographs, sound recordings, social media, oral histories, and digital archives—moving between theory and practice. Instructor approval required. 3hrs. sem.