HIST 7004 - The Archive

The archive has been a key site in the production of the past. The 'logic' of the archive - the choices by archivists about what to keep and dispose of, the history of the institution and its collection policies, the educational systems that produce archivists - comes to bear on the past by determining what is known and what is lost. Historians often have strong feelings about archives - described by some commentators as 'archive fever'. This course explores how the archive has been theorised and interpreted by historians and observers of historical practice. It is designed to provide students with the tools to more critically engage with the records used to produce historical knowledge, to better understand the archive as domain of knowledge production, and to gain insight into the operation of archives as institutions.