Archive/Counter-Archive solicits chapter proposals for Counter Archives: Communities, a hybrid media book under consideration with Concordia University Press edited by Stacy Allison-Cassin and Antoine Damiens.
Political, resistant and community-based counter-archives disrupt conventional narratives and enrich our histories. Counter-archives embody both a theoretical approach to conceptualizing archives and a mode of practice—a practice that resists the universalizing force of dominant techniques of documentation and standardization at work within most institutional archives, libraries, and museums. They seek to counter the hegemony of traditional archival institutions that have normally neglected or marginalized women, Indigenous peoples, the LGBT2Q+ community, and immigrant communities.
This volume is the first book within a potential book series edited by the Archive/Counter-Archive network. It seeks to reflect and theorize marginalized communities’ engagement with (counter)archival materials and protocols. As such, the book aims to decenter traditional archival narratives by focusing on community-led practices:. We want to understand how various communities preserve, engage with, and activate archival materials.
Chapters can be theoretical or exploratory in nature, based on specific case studies and project reports related or adjacent to the Archive/Counter-Archive project, partnership organizations, archives, collections, and projects. They can also consider practical challenges faced by community counter-archivists, or analyze how various communities preserve their own history.
It is our hope that the book will be available in two formats: a rich, hybrid media digital book and a traditional printed text. We encourage potential contributors to think about this double format as an opportunity to provide additional materials.
This book will aim to be a bridge between artists, researchers, and practitioners engaged in counter-archival endeavours. We welcome chapters featuring and/or building on research-creation as well as more conventional forms of scholarship. Given that this book is experimental in nature, contributors are invited to propose innovative modes of engagement with counter-archives that could be featured in print and/or digital formats.
Timeline
Please submit a 500-words chapter proposal (title, author informations, abstract) to the editors at kmo@counterarchive.ca by Monday, November 1st, 2021. Full-length chapters will be due on May 15th, 2022. We aim for the book to be published in November 2022.
About the editors
Dr. Stacy Allison-Cassin is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream at the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Her work is centered in the areas of knowledge organization, metadata, and knowledge equity, with a particular focus on linked data and music. A Citizen of the Métis Nation of Ontario, she engages in work and research related to Indigenous matters in libraries and the larger cultural heritage sector. With a deep interest in increasing access and visibility for non-textual materials and marginalized knowledge, Allison-Cassin is a passionate advocate for change in information structures and metadata systems within the library profession and across the wider GLAM sector. As an Associate Librarian at York University she has held positions as music cataloguer, digital humanities librarian, and as a member of the Department of Student Learning and Academic Success she focused on critical pedagogy with collection responsibilities for Philosophy and History.
Antoine Damiens is a MITACS Accelerate Postdoctoral Fellow at York University. His first book, LGBTQ Film Festivals: Curating Queerness, was published with Amsterdam University Press in 2020. Antoine oversees the Knowledge Mobilization activities for Archive/Counter-Archive. He also leads the Feminist and Queer Research Workgroup within the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies and co-edits the festival reviews section of NECSUS.
About A/CA
Archive/Counter-Archive (A/CA): Activating Canada's Moving Image Heritage is a seven-year research-creation project focusing on works by Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Métis, Inuit), Black communities and People of Colour, women, LGBT2Q+ and immigrant communities.
Led by Janine Marchessault and funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Grant, the partnership is composed of four universities (York, Ryerson, Queen's, and Concordia), numerous communities, memory institutions, and policy advocates.
Our research is committed to finding solutions for safekeeping Canada's audiovisual heritage. We seek to activate and remediate audiovisual heritage that is most vulnerable to disappearance and inaccessibility, fostering a community and network dedicated to creating best practices and cultural policies.The A/CA community includes over 60 participants, each with significantly diverse collections, access to technical resources, and expert archival knowledge.