Project Description

Archives and traces of migration project seeks to explore issues of appraisal, preservation, description and access of archival and documentary heritage material that documents emigration, expatriation, immigration, and diaspora communities. Archival inclusiveness in highlighting migration heritage from past and documenting and preserving present migration heritage is in the core of this project proposal. Very often state boundaries are not real boundaries of archival, museum and library material, because as people move, migrate, their records and records about them migrate too – through various countries and institutions. The activities within this project are designed in a way to accentuate these facts and position of archives as places of communication among communities, cultures, and time periods. Archives and traces of migration raise distinctive issues for archival and other cultural heritage professionals, many of whom have mandates that focus on one state or jurisdiction or on only certain types of documentary materials. Those issues are manifold and manifested in: various forms and formats in which material might exist; dispersion, fragmentation and transnationality of both materials and communities; incompletely understood diasporic community needs, identity and affect; motivations and priorities of “home” and “settlement” countries and their cultural institutions; and how to address existing documentary gaps and silences. The project started in September 2022 and will be wrapped up in 2025 with the international conference.