Abstract
This special issue of Archival Science examines the orientations, paradoxes, and tensions evident in the ethical struggles over the construction of the past and the degree to which archival agency can intercede in supporting a broadly drawn historical justice that also engages contemporary issues. Inspired and framed by a May 2008 conference hosted by School of Information and Labadie Collection, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the following essays offer case study examinations of how archival institutions and archivists contribute to societal memory systems through both their action and inaction, especially in regard to societal struggles over the meanings to be derived from the past.
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References
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Acknowledgments
In addition to myself, the main conference organizers were: Julie Herrada, Senior Associate Librarian and Curator of the Labadie Collection at the Special Collections Library, University of Michigan; and Anthea Josias, Fulbright Scholar and Ph.D. Candidate at the School of Information, University of Michigan. I wish to thank them both for their hard work and the inspiration to continue the spirit of the conference with this special issue. Sponsors who generously provided conference funding include The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation and a range of University of Michigan entities: the School of Information; University Library; President’s Ethics in Public Life Initiative; International Institute; Dean’s Office of the Rackham Graduate School; and the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR). The author would also like to thank Beth Yakel for her support throughout the creation of this special issue.
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A reference to Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of “habitus” which he defines as “that presence of the past in the present.” See his “Social being, time and the sense of existence.” In Bourdieu P (1999), Pascalian meditations Stanford: Stanford University Press, p. 210. Quoted by Stoler AL (2009) Along the archival grain: epistemic anxieties and colonial common sense. Princeton University Press, New Jersey, pp. 38–39. This notion is also expressed in Booth (2006), p. x.
Appendix: interdisciplinary perspectives on archives and the ethics of memory construction
Appendix: interdisciplinary perspectives on archives and the ethics of memory construction
Agenda
Friday, May 2, 2008
9:00am–11:30am: Opening Address
David A. Wallace (University of Michigan)
Introduction, Chair and Facilitator
Frank H. Wu (Wayne State University)
“It’s Not Fair.” The Life and Death of Vincent Chin and the Motor City
Fatma Müge Göçek (University of Michigan)
Recovering Colors from a Whitewashed Past: Evidence of the 1915 Armenian Ethic Cleansing in Contemporary Turkey
Discussion
1:00pm–4:00pm: Exploring the Ethics of Memory Construction (1)
Julie Herrada (University of Michigan)
Chair and Facilitator
Gudmund Valderhaug (Hordaland Regional Archives; Oslo University College, Norway)
Memory, Justice, and the Public Record
Barbara Madison (Michigan-based Native American research and genealogy consultant)
Seeking Native Documents: Institutional Challenges of Anishinaabeg Research
Noel Solani (Nelson Mandela National Museum)
Before Polokwane When Mandela Was President: Collecting Robben Island Prisoner Memories
Discussion
Saturday May 3, 2008
9:30am–12:30pm: Exploring the Ethics of Memory Construction (2)
Richard J. Cox (University of Pittsburgh)
Chair and Facilitator
Verne Harris (Nelson Mandela Foundation)
Ethics at the Endgame: Archives and Justice in South African Contexts
Jack Tchen & Dylan Yeats (New York University)
Reviving ‘Yellow Peril’: Re-Membering a Disappeared Archive of the American Empire
Discussion
2:00pm–4:00pm: Charting the Way Forward: Summation and
Sustainability
Margaret Hedstrom (University of Michigan)
Summarizer and Facilitator