TY - JOUR

T1 - Archives beyond the human

AU - Oliver, C.

PY - 2024/7/31

Y1 - 2024/7/31

N2 - This article reflects on what it might mean to think about archives “beyond” the human, specifically in relation to animals and their archives. Interdisciplinary and disciplinary “animal turns” have brought animals into social science and humanities spaces—as both subjects and collaborators. In archival research and studies, encounters with animals, and more broadly nonhumans, both complicate and extend contemporary debates: on how we research in the archives, on ethics and politics, and even on what constitutes an archive. Drawing from three different case studies from its author's research with historical animals—in a traditional archive, in the digital archive, and in a speculative archive—the article reflects on some of these contemporary debates to ask how we might meaningfully extend archives beyond the human.

AB - This article reflects on what it might mean to think about archives “beyond” the human, specifically in relation to animals and their archives. Interdisciplinary and disciplinary “animal turns” have brought animals into social science and humanities spaces—as both subjects and collaborators. In archival research and studies, encounters with animals, and more broadly nonhumans, both complicate and extend contemporary debates: on how we research in the archives, on ethics and politics, and even on what constitutes an archive. Drawing from three different case studies from its author's research with historical animals—in a traditional archive, in the digital archive, and in a speculative archive—the article reflects on some of these contemporary debates to ask how we might meaningfully extend archives beyond the human.

U2 - 10.1215/17432197-11160114

DO - 10.1215/17432197-11160114

M3 - Journal article

VL - 20

SP - 277

EP - 288

JO - Cultural Politics

JF - Cultural Politics

SN - 1743-2197

IS - 2

ER -