Ep#3 - Archives / The Archive Beyond Colouring-In: A Geography Podcast

In this episode, Ben is joined in conversation by Dr Su Fitzpatrick, a Geographer lecturing at York St John University, to discuss the question of archives, and their use within geographical research and our efforts to understand the past. The conversation includes considering the question ‘what is an archive / the archive?’ We also reflect on our own work involving archives, the practicalities of doing so, and the issue of gaps or absences in recorded historical sources. Across much of the discussion Su draws from her recent experiences researching British ‘New Towns’ – specifically Warrington New Town – and you can read more about her work on her research blog, ‘Days of the New Town’: https://daysofthenewtown.wordpress.com/

Below, for those who are interested, are some links to relevant readings mentioned in conversation, and that further flesh out the concepts / topics discussed...

Key Reading #1: The chapters in the SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Geography by Hayden Lorimer (‘Chapter 14 – Caught in the Nick of Time: Archives and Fieldwork’) is a brilliant and insightful reflection on the challenge of archive-working. Link:  https://methods.sagepub.com/book/the-sage-handbook-of-qualitative-geography-srm/i1471.xml

Key Reading #2: The recent (2022) piece by Case Watkins and Judith Carney in the journal Antipode, entitled ‘Amplifying the Archive: Methodological Plurality and Geographies of the Black Atlantic’, features in our discussion. It’s a great example of how combining different kinds of sources offers a route to addressing the absences inherent in the ‘imperial archive’. Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/anti.12838

Further Reading: Su flags Francesca Moore’s ‘Tales from the archive: methodological and ethical issues in historical geography research’, published in 2010 in Area, as a useful elaboration of some of the key ethical questions that working in archives, particularly when exploring more sensitive topics or histories, can raise. Link: https://rgs-ibg.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1475-4762.2009.00923.x

Further Reading: Sarah Mills’ review of archival research in Geography, published in Geography Compass in 2013 (‘Cultural–Historical Geographies of the Archive: Fragments, Objects and Ghosts’), especially concerns the often partial or fragmented character of historical records, the utilisation of artefacts as archival sources, and the various means by which history is ‘haunted’ by the stories of those excluded from the narrative of the day. Link: https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/gec3.12071





(C) 2022. Produced / Edited by B. Garlick