Engendering the Archive

Engendering the Archive is a three-year interdisciplinary research project focusing on gender, sexuality, race, and archival practices. We will look at categories of social difference as inescapable aspects of differential power relations that determine what societies remember and what they forget. Focusing on key questions such as--What is an archive? Who or what authorizes its construction? How do archives contribute to the production of social and cultural difference? How does the development of new media radically change the way knowledge is classified, stored, and retrieved?—the project will seek answers by taking advantage of theories and methods developed by contemporary artists, activists, and scholars of race, gender, and sexuality. more

"Engendering the Archive" investigates some of these fundamental questions from a global perspective that takes account of the role of racism and colonialism in the production of archives and of categories that make legible or erase particular events and experiences. Gender, along with race, sexuality, and class, are inescapable aspects of differential power relations that determine what societies remember and what they forget.

In the current first year of this three-year project, we have organized a series of preliminary events and planning sessions and have constituted a working group of scholars from Columbia and the New York region interested in this project. Year two will involve six meetings of this working group, each centered on a particular topic, with presentations by group members and lectures by visiting fellows.

In the third year the working group will narrow its focus to the in-depth study of a specific facet of the problem of the archive that is identified in year two as particularly pressing or important. The group will meet three times in year three in preparation for a major conference in spring of 2010. Members of the working group will take turns leading sessions or contributing work to be read and discussed. Publication of papers from the working group and the conference is intended. Possible distinguished fellows for one to two-week residencies include Isaac Julien, Clive Van den Berg, Edwidge Danticat, Fred Wilson, Susan Meiselas, Antoinette Burton, and Jane Taylor.

Participants include approximately 30 scholars, activists and cultural practitioners drawn from Columbia, from other colleges and universities in the greater New York area, and from abroad, as well as several Columbia graduate students.

Dear Engendering Archives working group members,

Please save February 26, April 16 and May 7 for spring semester meetings. All meetings will be devoted to the discussion of group members' work. On February 26, we are discussing Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer "School Photos and the Afterlives" and Saidiya Hartman "Wayward Lives and the Motion of History." Please send all correspondence to amw2166@columbia.edu, and mh2349@columbia.edu. Looking forward to seeing you on December 4, Jean, Marianne, Saidiya.

Project Fellows

Jonathan Beller
Tina Campt
Hazel Carby
Anne Cheng
Yvette Christianse
Laura Ciolkowski, CCASD Associate Director
Mary Marshall Clark
Beth Coleman
Judith Greenberg
Atina Grossman
Saidiya Hartman, Co-Director
Anne Higonnet
Marianne Hirsch, Co-Director and CCASD Co-Director
Jean Howard, Co-Director
Andreas Huyssen
Jennifer James, Graduate Student Fellow
Kellie Jones
Yasmin Khayat, Graduate Student Fellow
Natasha Lightfoot
Sharon Marcus
Anne McClintock
Frank Mecklenburg
Susan Meiselas
Nancy Miller
Nicholas Mirzoeff
Hlonipha Mokoena
Roz Morris
Frances Negron-Mutaner
Alondra Nelson
Karen Newman
Lorie Novak
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg
Leo Spitzer
Marita Sturken
Neferti Tadiar
Diana Taylor
Kendall Thomas
Laura Wexler
Patricia Williams
Deborah Willis
Mabel Wilson
Autumn Womack, Graduate Student Fellow

Working Group Schedule

FALL 2009 MEETING DATES AND INFORMATION

Dear Engendering Archives working group members, Our next meeting is on December 4, 9 - 12, followed by lunch. Please save January 29, February 26, April 16 and May 7 mornings for spring semester meetings. All meetings will be devoted to the discussion of group members' work. On December 4, we are discussingJean Howard, " Tony Kushner's America and its Angels " and Mabel Wilson, “Progress and Prospects.” Sharon Marcus and Saidiya Hartman will respond. Please send all correspondence to amw2166@columbia.edu, and mh2349@columbia.edu. Looking forward to seeing you on December 4, Jean, Marianne, Saidiya.

Dates for Fall 2009...

December 4: The seminar will meet from 9 -12 in 754 Schermerhorn Extension. Papers will be presented by Jean Howard (Respondent Sharon Marcus) and Mabel Wilson (Respondent Saidiya Hartman). The meeting will be followed by lunch and a conference planning meeting.

Dates for Spring 2010...

January 29: We will meet from 9-12 in in 754 Schermerhorn Extension followed by lunch and a conference planning meeting. Diana Taylor and Beth Povinelli will present their papers.

February 26: We will meet from 9-12 in 754 Schermerhorn Extension followed by lunch and a conference planning meeting. Saadiya Hartman and Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer will present their papers.

April 16: We will meet from 9-12 n 754 Schermerhorn Extension followed by lunch and a conference planning meeting. Anne Cvetkovich and Beth Coleman will present their papers.

May 7: We will meet from 9-12 n 754 Schermerhorn Extension followed by lunch and a conference planning meeting. Carroll Smith Rosenberg and TBA will present their papers.