Archives and Emotions

Archives and Emotions argues, at its most fundamental level, that emotions matter and have always mattered to both the people whose histories are documented by archives and to those working with the documents these contain. This is the first study to put archivists and historians—scholars and practitioners from different settings, geographical provenance, and stages of career—in conversation with one another to examine the interplay of a broad range of emotions and archives, traditional and digital, from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries across national and disciplinary borders.

Drawing on methodologies from the history of emotions and critical archival studies, this book provides an original analysis of two interconnected themes through a selected number of case studies: the emotional dynamics affecting the construction and management of archives; and the emotions and their effects on the people engaging with them, such as archivists, researchers, and a broad range of communities.

Its main message is that critically investigating the history and mechanics of emotions—including their suppression and exclusion—while being conscious of their effects on people and societies is essential to understanding how archives came to hold deep civic and ethical implications for both present and future. This study thus establishes a solid base for future scholarship and interdisciplinary collaborations and challenges academic and non-academic readers to think, work, and train new generations differently, fully aware that past and present choices have—and might again—hurt, inspire, empower, or silence.