Workshop
28/05/2025
9:30 Uhr
Documents, Archives, and Colonial Power
UdL 6
Raum 1066e
Event times(s) and duration:
Wednesday, 28 May 2025
First session 09.30 – 12.00
Second session 13.30 – 16.30
Organizer(s):
Claas Oberstadt (Humboldt Universität zu Berlin/Kleine Formen)
Annca Pielenhofer (MPIWG/IMPRS)
Omri Polatsek (MPIWG/IMPRS)
Dwirahmi Suryandari (MPIWG/IMPRS)
Event description
Main topic: Documents and Archives
With these following sub-topics:
- Working with documents and archives as historical sources and working beyond their formal boundaries.
This explores the dual function of documents and archives: as repositories of historical data and as entities with limitations and biases. - How colonial histories continue to shape the present through archival practices.
Colonial archives are more than historical repositories; they are active agents in shaping contemporary identities, power structures, and knowledge systems. This sub-topic emphasizes the enduring impact of colonial documentation practices on societal hierarchies and the ways historical narratives are constructed today. - Using ethnography as a methodological approach to the archive
Looking at how ethnography, traditionally used in fieldwork, can be applied to the archive to study its social, cultural, and material dimensions. - What do documents do? The role of documentation in colonial encounters.
Documents in colonial contexts were tools of governance and control, and they helped construct “truths” about the colonized. - The “emotional economy” documents both participate in and prolong.
How colonial documents, such as official/unofficial correspondences or administrative records, reflected meticulous organization often driven by fear and desire. 19 Dec. 2024 - How are documents preserved in the archive; how do they filter/manage the production of knowledge?
The processes of preservation and categorization in archives are not neutral; they reflect institutional priorities and values. Decisions about what emotions are inscribed at the margins of the forms.
Event justification:
Ann Stoler’s work has shaped ways of thinking about the role of the colonial archive and raised critical questions about what it means for the production of knowledge and to work with documents produced in imperial encounters. Being a trained anthropologist, her perspective on archival and documentary practice adds to considerations of the role of the archive in the field of history and the history of sciences.
In our PhD projects, questions of archive, documentality, and coloniality come up in different ways. We hope that the intensive seminar can not only be a space for discussion with a leading scholar in the field, but also an opportunity to critically consider how we want to practically and theoretically approach these questions in our projects. We hope that by combining an in-depth discussion of Stoler’s work with a guided conversation about some of the specific issues and questions that have come up in our work, we will leave the seminar with new ideas on how to reflect and carry out the archival work in our projects.
Additional attendance and RSVP rules:
The event is open to all Kleine Formen and MPIWG Pre-docs, subject to registration. Participation in the second session will be more restricted.