One of the imperatives of digital humanities as a field is to seize knowledge production and decolonize the cultural record. As digital humanities practitioners in libraries and archives, this is especially the case given the proliferation of disinformation, censorship, and hegemonic narratives that aim to erase the destruction of peoples and their heritage by their colonizers, which may be our own institutions. Digital humanities, whether through DIY archiving and feminist data practices, offers methods to resist colonial narratives in the digital cultural record. As such, we’re sharing a call for submissions to the special issue of Comma: International Journal on Archives. From the email call:
We invite submissions in any language to a special issue of the International Council on Archivesā journal, Comma, on fighting colonial erasure and archiving against genocide for liberation, decolonization, resurgence, and return in the Global South. In this urgent moment for the Palestinian people, over 300 days into what the International Court of Justice has deemed a plausible genocide in Gaza, we focus in particular on the Palestinian case in comparative, regional, and/or global perspective. Hence, we especially welcome submissions on Palestinian archives and heritage anywhere in the world, that provide a comparative perspective between the Palestinian case and other Global South cases, and/or think through dilemmas and issues in any context related to the theme of āarchiving against genocideā. All submissions will be translated into Arabic and English.
Curated by a international Guest Editorial Collective led by Palestinian, Lebanese and racialized scholars and practitioners, this special issue seeks to address questions that are as pressing today as they have ever been over the last centuries of western colonialism and racial domination, with their attendant archival erasures and epistemic violences:
- How can we archive against genocide in Gaza, elsewhere in Palestine, and across the Global South?
- How can we archive for native sovereignty, liberation, return, landback, healing, and resurgence in Palestine, and elsewhere in the region and across the Global South?
- How can we do liberatory memory work under the conditions of neoliberalism, globalisation, and late capital? How can we draw on anticolonial, antiracist, feminist, and community-centred models to avoid the pitfalls of First World guilt and racist, paternalistic benevolence?
- How can we archive and activate the history of Palestine as a celebration of sacrifice and resistance in defiance of racist, self-serving settler colonial frameworks?
- How can we produce a counter-narrative based on documentary heritage and archives?
- In what ways can models and practices of South-South and South-North solidarity and collaboration help us articulate a deeper, more meaningful decolonial archival praxis?
- How can we draw on key international, regional and national texts, documents, conventions, calls, statements, and laws to address these complex issues and conundrums?
We welcome articles that examine a range of models, solutions, and frameworks, including key international instruments and conventions, such as:
- Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (UN 1954)
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UN 1948)
- IV Geneva Convention (UN 1949), and its two protocols 1997
- Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect of State Property, Archives & Debt (UN 1983)
- Ownership, Control, Access & Possession (First Nations Governance Center 1998)
- Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN 2007)
- Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (UN 1998)
- Truth & Reconciliation Commissionsā Calls to Action (Truth & Reconciliation Commission in Canada 2015)
- CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance (Global Indigenous Data Alliance 2019)
- Call to Action: Archiving State-Sanctioned Violence Against Black People (2020)
- Tandanya, the Adelaide Declaration (International Council on Archives 2020)
- Position Statement on the Right of Reply to Indigenous Knowledges and Information Held in Archives (Association of Canadian Archivists 2021)
- A Call to Archive Against Genocide: Archivists & Memory Workers in Solidarity with Palestine & Palestinian Colleagues (Documentary Nakba Reading Group 2024)
As archivists and memory workers worldwide continue to sign a call to archive against genocide in solidarity with Palestine and Palestinian Archives, this special issue similarly calls for an international conversation grounded in solidarity and directed towards liberation. At its core, this special issue seeks to address the fundamental question of how we can centre the right of colonised people to deconstruct and decolonise their archives; to create their counter narrative; to realise their right to a liberated epistemology about their history and truth; and to regather their fragmented archives and documentary heritage. It centres the importance of affirming the right of colonised people to self-determination and self-representation in the design, implementation, and management of archival and heritage interventions as community members, allies, and co-conspirators
In the lead up to the special issue, the Guest Editorial Collective is working with local and global partners to host a virtual symposium related to the theme. Join the Archives & Digital Media Lab mailing list at (info[at]archiveslab.org) for updates.
Submission formats include but are not limited to:
- Academic articles (~6,000 words)
- Opinion pieces (~2,000-3,500 words)
- Legal briefs on specific cases of disputed archives
- Interviews
- Calls to Action
- Manifestos
- Open letters
- Petitions
- Standards, guidelines, and schemas
- Edited transcripts of academic, professional or public events, including (paper presentations, roundtables, panels, keynote addresses, etc.
- Reviews of books and relevant documents/instruments on archival decolonization and repatriation, including standards, declarations, position statements, etc.
- Artistic or creative pieces — contact us at director@archiveslab.org with your ideas
- Other format proposals are welcome — contact us at director@archiveslab.org with your ideas
Submissions in all languages are welcome, and they will be translated into English and Arabic, as relevant. For more information, contact Dr. Jamila J. Ghaddar, Assistant Professor, Dalhousie University (director[at]archiveslab.org), or Dr. James Lowry, Professor, City University of New York, (james.lowry[at]qc.cuny.edu).
The deadline for submissions is January 10, 2025 with publication expected for Fall 2025.