This reading group responds to questions about the role of archival research, museum and artistic practice in a context of pandemic-related travel restrictions, climate crisis, and moves to decolonise British memory institutions. All of these have highlighted the extent to which traditional practices were dependent on various privileges (mobility, access, time and money).
The meetings are open to all, and we warmly welcome the participation of both academic and non-academic researchers (museum and library workers, family historians, activists and artists) working across disciplines, time periods and regions.
The sessions will have both a theoretical and practical component, and the main focus will be participants鈥� discussion of their own work. Everyone who takes part is encouraged to bring in a text, object, problem or question to discuss. We also welcome suggestions for further readings, with a view to collectively compiling a list of resources on the reading group theme.
The听reading group emerges from Pragya鈥檚 archival research on the Indian emergency and proscribed publications in colonial India. The latter was the focus of the 2018 IAS-乱伦秀 workshop, 鈥�Insurgency in the Archives鈥�, proceedings of which were published in a of History Workshop Journal (2020).
The reading group also complements an exhibition she is curating in SOAS art gallery, (28 April 鈥� 25 June 2022), on Indian radical print and the London 茅migr茅 鈥榦rigins鈥� and global spread of the cyclostyle technology used to produce it: the 鈥楪estetner鈥� 鈥� as the best-known example of this technology in Britain is known, after its Tottenham-based Hungarian-Jewish inventor.
Schedule
Tuesday 5 April
Wim Wenders, (1987)听
This event has a different time and location
Online and in person at , Rotherhithe, 8pm听
Book online and in person tickets at: 听
(Tickets are free but donations to Sands Cinema Club, to continue free access to screenings, are welcome: )听
Tuesday 3 May
The library scene in Himmel 眉ber Berlin (viewable on YouTube), Immanuel Kant, 鈥� (1784), Jorge Luis Borges, 鈥溾��(1941) and Andrew Hui, 鈥溾�� (2022)听
Location: IAS Forum, 6-8pm听
Tuesday 17 May
Arlette Farge,听"Gathering and Handling Documents" in听The Allure of the Archives听(1989) and Achille Mbembe, 鈥淭he Power of the Archive and its Limits鈥� (2002)
Please contact Pragya if you have any queries or trouble accessing these texts.听
Location: IAS Forum, 6-8pm听
Tuesday 31 May听
This session has been cancelled
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause
Jacques Derrida, 鈥溾�� (1995)
Location: IAS Forum, 6-8pm听
Tuesday 14 June
Ariella鈥疉茂sha鈥疉zoulay,鈥�"Archives: The Commons, Not the Past" in (2020)听
Location: IAS听Forum, 6-8pm听
There will also be screenings of Resnais鈥� Toute la m茅moire du monde (1956) and William Kentridge鈥檚 City Deep (2020) 鈥� details to follow听
Archives for Future History Reading Group is grateful for financial support from the Centre for Critical Heritage Studies and Sands Film Studio.听
All welcome. Please follow this听FAQ听link for more information. All our events are free but you can support the IAS听here.
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