- About
- Convenors
- Programme 2021-2022
- Past programme
About
Archives of the Disappeared is an interdisciplinary research initiative for the study and documentation of communities, social movements, spaces, lifeworlds, literatures and cultures that have been destroyed through acts of political repression and mass violence. Through a reading group, seminars and masterclasses, as well as lectures by scholars, artists, archivists, and community activists, the initiative will explore the question of ‘archive’ in the context of annihilation.
Researchers rely on empirical and/or textual analysis where finding ‘evidence’ is a core methodological objective. However, evidence can and is erased by perpetrators, be they states, colonial powers or otherwise, through a myriad of tactics, including the denial of culpability and the rejection of attempts at accountability. This initiative addresses the challenges of scholarly, archival, and documentary practices in the context of elimination and loss. How does one document or analyse that which has been erased or disappeared? Where and how is such knowledge stored? We will discuss frameworks and methodologies for the study of traces, ruins, documents, accounts, utterances, silences, memories, and imaginaries left behind. We will explore how scholars, social movements, and artists from communities that were made to disappear have created new kinds of archives, new genres of evidentiary practice, and new techniques of documentation. Finally, we will look at how this knowledge of absence can prompt scholars to rethink epistemologies, methodologies and disciplinary practices within the humanities and social sciences.
Throughout the 2019 – 2021 academic years, the Archives of the Disappeared Research Initiative will organise reading sessions, seminars, lectures, a working papers series, and masterclasses.
To join the mailing list, receive readings and event updates, please contact Mezna Qato.
Supported by by CRASSH and The Margaret Anstee Centre for Global Studies, Newnham College, at the University of Cambridge
Convenors
Convenors
- Mezna Qato Bio (Anstee Research Fellow, Newnham College, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge)
- Yael Navaro (Fellow of Newnham College, Reader in the Anthropology of Politics, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge)
- Chana Morgenstern (Fellow of Newnham College, Lecturer in Postcolonial and Middle Eastern Literatures, Faculty of English, University of Cambridge)
- Mahvish Ahmad (AW Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape)
Faculty Advisors
- Manali Desai (Reader in Sociology, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge)
- Ruba Salih (Reader in Anthropology and Gender Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London)
Programme 2021-2022
Easter Term 2022
TBA
Lent Term 2022
Archives of the Disappeared |
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Archives of the disappeared: mapping next directions II 12 Jan 2022 - 15 Jan 2022 09:00 - 19:00, Online Closed workshop (by invitation) |
Archive wars: book conversation with Rosie Bsheer 26 Jan 2022 17:00 - 19:00, Online Rosie Bsheer (Harvard) |
The Arab Left Journal: pedagogies in the classroom and beyond 4 Mar 2022 13:00 - 14:30, Online event Idriss Jebari, Zeina Maasri, Mezna Qato and Hana Morgenstern.
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Reverberations: violence across time and space 14 Mar 2022 17:00 - 20:00, Online Book launch: Yael Navaro, Zerrin Özlem Biner, Alice von Bieberstein, Seda Altuğ |
Voices of the Nakba: a living history of Palestine 6 Apr 2022 17:00 - 19:00, Online A conversation |
Michaelmas Term 2021
Archives of the Disappeared |
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Documentary poetics in Gaza: Mosab Abu Toha and Refqa Abu-Remaileh in conversation 8 Oct 2021 17:00 - 19:00, Online Mosab Abu Toha (Poet, Writer), Refqa Abu-Remaileh (Berlin) |
Archives of the Disappeared: mapping next directions 22 Oct 2021 - 24 Oct 2021 All day, CRASSH Closed workshop (by invitation) |
Dissident histories of Pakistan: teaching tools and archive launch | SARRC 26 Oct 2021 13:30 - 15:30, Online |
Urgent archives: a book launch and conversation with Michelle Caswell 16 Nov 2021 17:00 - 19:00, Online Michelle Caswell (UCLA) |
Past programme
Programme 2019-20
Easter Term 2021
Archives of the Disappeared |
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Potential History: Unlearning Imperialism 6 May 2021 5:00pm - 6:30pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time). NB: Different time and day. Ariella Azoulay (Brown University) |
POSTPONED. Archive Wars: Book Conversation 19 May 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) NB: Different time and day. Rosie Bsheer (Harvard) |
Space, Place and Racial Capitalism: C18 Jamaica | Public Lecture 1 Jun 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time). NB: Different time and day. Catherine Hall (UCL) |
Lent Term 2021
Archives of the Disappeared |
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Literature as Archive I: Isabella Hammad, Amir Ahmadi Arian and Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi 15 Jan 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE (17:00 UK Time) Isabella Hammad (Writer), Amir Ahmadi Arian (Writer, Queensland and NYU), Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi (Writer), Hana Morgenstern (Cambridge). |
Literature as Archive II: Reading and Conversation with Elias Khoury and Susan Abulhawa 19 Feb 2021 5:00pm - 7:00pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Elias Khoury (Writer), Susan Abulhawa (Writer), Hana Morgenstern (Cambridge), Hilary Rantisi (Harvard) |
Violent Abolition: Encounters and Authority at the End of the Trade in Enslaved Africans to Brazil 23 Feb 2021 5:00pm - 6:30pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time) Jake Subryan Richards (LSE) Public Lecture |
Michaelmas Term 2020
Archives of the Disappeared |
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Documentation and Disappearance in South Asia II 27 Oct 2020 5:30pm - 7:30pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK time). Please note the changed time and date. |
An Archaeology of Marronage: Mapping Slave Runaway Sites in Hispaniola, 1521-1822 30 Nov 2020 5:30pm - 7:30pm, ONLINE SESSION (UK Time). Please note the changed time. Theresa Singleton (Syracuse University) |
Programme 2019 – 2020
Archives of the Disappeared |
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Erasure: Palestine (Introductory Seminar) 9 Oct 2019 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Seminar Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT |
Archival Turns 23 Oct 2019 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Seminar Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT Reading Group Session |
Archive and Annihilation 6 Nov 2019 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Seminar Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT Reading Group Session |
RELOCATED: Genocide and Archives 26 Nov 2019 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Audit Room, King's College, King's Parade CB2 1ST Cambridge. NB Different venue. Silvina Der Meguerditchian (The houshamadyan project) |
RELOCATED: Archive and Enslavement 4 Dec 2019 5:00pm - 7:00pm, Keynes Hall, King's College, King's Parade CB2 1ST. NB Different venue Reading Group Session |
Archives and Indigeneity 23 Jan 2020 3:00pm - 5:00pm, Audit Room, King’s College, King's Parade CB2 1ST (NB different room, day, and time) Reading group |
Translation and Colonisation in Israel/Palestine 30 Jan 2020 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Audit Room, King’s College, King's Parade CB2 1ST (NB different room and day) Kifah Abdul Halim (Journalist, translator and producer), Eyad Barghouti (TA University), Yonatan Mendel (Ben Gurion University) |
Archive and Enslavement II: Flesh and Embodiment 12 Feb 2020 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Seminar Room SG2, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DT Reading Group |
RELOCATED: Disappearance and Documentation 26 Feb 2020 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Sidgwick Hall, Newnham College, Sidgwick Ave, Cambridge, CB3 9DF |
ONLINE Archives of a Quarantine 8 May 2020 2:30pm - 4:00pm, Online session Khaled Fahmy (University of Cambridge) |
ONLINE Oral Histories of the Disappeared 12 May 2020 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Online session Leyla Neyzi (Sabanci), Erin Jessee (Glasgow)-Workshop |
ONLINE Archives of Pandemics 26 May 2020 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Online session Christos Lynteris (St Andrews) |
ONLINE Disappearance and Documentation II 3 Jun 2020 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Online session Reading session |
ONLINE The Book of Disappearance 23 Jun 2020 2:30pm - 4:30pm, Online session Reading session |