technē Archive Day 

31st May 2019 10:00am-4:45pm 

Archival research training has been a consistent request of students from across the disciplines and recent events at the Congress have proved popular. This event (organised by Rob Priest from Royal Holloway) will draw on the practical experience of recent PhD students while also providing an opportunity for current technē students to discuss issues surround archival research.

During the morning, we will visit archival collections in the Bloomsbury area. At each site, current or recent PhD students will meet us in situ at archives they have used for their projects, alongside a librarian or archivist. Relevant materials will be on display, and the researcher will talk through how they used these materials in their research, and any methodological issues that were raised, followed by an opportunity for questions.

During the afternoon, we will convene at Bedford Square for a series of informal presentations from technē students who are using archival research as part of their current projects, while also providing an opportunity to discuss theoretical and methodological issues.

 

MORNING: Hands-On Archival Visits (Bloomsbury)

10.00-11.00 Royal Asiatic Society with Ed Weech (RAS librarian, current PhD student @ SOAS)

11.30-12.30 Wellcome Archive with Charlie Williams (recent PhD @ Birkbeck, postdoc @ QMUL)

LUNCH

1.00-2.00 Lunch at Bedford Square

 

AFTERNOON: Presentations and Discussion (Bedford Square)

2.00-3.30 Student Presentations and Q&A

4 x technē-funded students present aspects of their ongoing archival research – informal, methodological reflections rather than full research papers, about 15-20 minutes each + Q&A. Judging by the Congress panel there seemed to be a good clutch of students already working with archives who might be willing to participate in this. I will send out a call for volunteers in March.

3.30-3.45 Tea Break

3.45-4.45 Concluding Discussion

 

Book a place by emailing techne@rhul.ac.uk

Once you have registered your attendance on the day, we would also like to invite up to four participants to offer informal presentations of about 15 minutes on their current research as part of the event. These presentations offer an opportunity to reflect on archival research you may have carried out during your PhD with an interdisciplinary audience of graduate students. Rather than a formal research paper, these should offer reflections on any practical, methodological or theoretical questions and problems that were raised during the process of your archival research process. If you would also like to be considered as a presenting participant, please register as usual, but also send a proposal of 2-300 words to robert.priest@rhul.ac.uk by 5pm on 26th April.

Please include:

• Your name, subject area and university affiliation.
• The working title of your PhD thesis.
• A description of your proposed talk (200-300 words).

You can put this information either in an attached document or simply in the body of the email, but please make sure it is all there and put ‘TECHNE Archives Proposal’ as the subject line.

Researchers from all disciplines are welcome to submit proposals. Please note that slots are limited, so presentations will be selected to ensure diversity across disciplines, periods, etc.

A collective consideration of themes and questions arising from the day. All participants will be invited to raise issues from their own research or from the preceding talks for consideration by the group.