CFP: Documentation of/as Violence

Tina Liu and Tellina Liu (McGill University) seek proposals for chapters for a new edited volume, “Documentation of/as Violence,” part of the Critical LIS Book Series. From call for proposals on the series editor’s website:

We are soliciting chapter proposals for an edited volume titled “Documentation of/as Violence.” In this volume, we seek to explore how documentation, or the lack thereof, can function in capacities that both enforce and protect against violence. We understand documents, and documentation, through two primary functions: surveillance and preservation. The collection of materials capturing violence enacted upon marginalized communities, as well as how the practice of documentation itself can be a violent action of surveillance experienced by marginalized communities complicate the function of representation in library and archival collections.

Throughout this volume, our goal is to encourage readers to reflect on the role(s) of violence in the preservation of history. We seek to map out a range of perspectives that critically engage with how professional practice addresses the documentation of violence, as well as how documentation itself enacts violence on marginalized communities. We welcome contributors writing from critical theoretical, Black, feminist, abolitionist, Indigenous, post-colonial, and liberatory perspectives, as well as contributors working outside of libraries and archives (such as community organizers and activists, and public historians).

Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:

Documentation and Surveillance Technologies

• Histories of the surveillance of marginalized communities
• Documentation of activism and activist groups
• Absence of documentation as protection (e.g., public libraries)
• Impact of technology/technological developments on documentation and ethics
• Access to and engagement with documentation of violence

Ethical Quandaries

• Agency and consent of the subject of documentation
• Who is entitled to documentation of a community?
• What is the value of documentation of violence?
• Preservation of documentation of violence
• Impact of one’s identity and positionality relative to the content of documentation

What is the value of documentation?

• Differences in the function of documentation for institutions and communities
• Gaps in documentation
• Archival silence
• Does loss of documentation equal violence against a community / history?

Proposals should be 300-500 words (APA style), include a chapter title, and brief author(s) biography (no more than 100 words per author). Proposals should be submitted to the volume’s Google Form by February 18, 2026.

Given the emphasis on surveillance technology and ethical questions posed by current technologies, this proposed volume might be of particular interest to the dh+lib community, many of whom grapple with a range of ethical challenges related to data and privacy that arise through digital archival praxis and critical digital inquiry.