Archives beyond the human

Oliver, C. (2024) Archives beyond the human. Cultural Politics, 20 (2). pp. 277-288. ISSN 1743-2197

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Abstract

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.