Submissions are invited for the Critical Digital Archives: Travel, Translation, Transformation: A Hybrid Symposium on Archives in and from the SWANA Region, to take place January 21-22, 2027, at the Senate House in London. From the call:
This symposium aims to provide a forum for scholars, archivists, community and cultural organizations interested in critical approaches to digital archives containing materials from and about the SWANA (Southwest Asia and North Africa) region, understood as a geographic, historical, and cultural space. In this space, archives have been historically imposed, looted, extracted, dispersed, destroyed, but also rescued, rebuilt and reinvented, pioneering practices of resistance, reparation and return that raise compelling ethical, theoretical and practical questions for scholars and stakeholders (Ghaddar, 2025). Building on Itza Carbajal and Michelle Caswell’s framework (2021), our approach seeks to advance a language-sensitive understanding of reparative archival practices that are attentive to and accountable for the technological, social, and environmental impacts of digital archives. We are interested in digitisation as a transformative process that reshapes archival practices, knowledge production, and power relations. Conceived as a collaborative, interdisciplinary, and horizontal forum, the symposium invites participants, both in person and online, to engage in discussion and exchange around three interconnected themes and interpretative lenses. Two keynote speakers – Sara Salem (LSE) and Amanda Egbe (UWE) – will act as discussants, facilitating collective reflection and dialogue around participants’ contributions. The three themes of the symposium are Travel,: Archives in Movement; Translation: Languages in the Archives; and Transformation: Digital Futures and Ethics of Dematerialization.
Abstracts of 300 words and short biographies are due by September 30, 2026, via email to b.spadaro[at]liverpool.ac.uk and v.vitale[at]sheffield.ac.uk.
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