Preservation is Political
Enacting Contributive Justice and Decolonizing Transnational Archival Collaborations
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19574164 |
|---|---|
| Authors | T-Kay Sangwand (0000-0002-0679-2614, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 2 |
| Pages | 10 |
| Publication date | 2018-11-29 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | KULA knowledge creation dissemination and preservation studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2398-4112 • E-ISSN: 2398-4112 |
| Publisher | University of Victoria Libraries (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5334/kula.36 |
| OpenAlex | W2902421841 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 16 |
This article contributes to critical archival studies discourse and builds upon the theoretical and practical work accomplished under the postcustodial rubric in order to propose an archival framework that is explicitly oriented in the service of justice. Global north/south postcustodial collaborations highlight the ethical and practical obligation of adopting an archival framework that accounts for expanded notions of stewardship and narrative agency. As an archivist based in US academic libraries who works primarily on transnational archival collaborations in the global south, I want to introduce the concept of contributive justice to these postcustodial transnational collaborations because it reframes the role of the partner organization in the global south and acknowledges the agency of all partners (Gomberg 2007). By drawing upon my experiences facilitating transnational archival partnerships between US academic libraries and institutions in Cuba, El Salvador, and Rwanda, I build upon Michelle Caswell’s (2017) suggested actions for dismantling white supremacy within US archives by offering concrete ways archivists can utilize a contributive justice framework to decolonize archival practices (i.e., appraisal, description, access) within transnational partnerships. By offering these examples, we can begin to both imagine and enact a more just and liberatory archival praxis. As Caswell states, ‘through the lens of liberatory archival imaginaries, our work ... does not end with the limits of our collection policies, but rather, it is an ongoing process of conceptualizing what we want the future to look like’ (2014a: 51). The stakes are high in the shaping of our collective histories, and we all have the responsibility of envisioning and enacting liberatory archival futures
Archivist · Economic Justice · Library science · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Praxis · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Cuban History and Society · Digital and Traditional Archives Management · Latin American and Latino Studies · Law
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| Citations per year | 0.38 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2020 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |