Monday, June 17, 2013

"Archives & Agential Life" Workshop

Participants in a recent workshop entitled "Archives & Agential Life" made enthusiastic use of the holdings of Special Collections. Co-directed by Prof. Theresa Kelley of UW-Madison's Department of English and Prof. Deirdre Lynch of the University of Toronto, the workshop included ample time to discuss precirculated papers, an archival walk arranged by Carrie Roy of the Libraries and the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, and afternoons spent in Special Collections exploring a wide array of "archival objects" within our holdings.




Those archival objects ranged from the 18th century through the early 20th century, and included objects as diverse as


end of a letter from Boulton and Barker to Sir J. Banks regarding Icelandic affairs, Dec. 5, 1809, from MS 3, Special Collections, Memorial Library, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Participants then presented an archival object of their choosing "as a material and theoretical focus of inquiry" at the final workshop session, held at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery. Since the intent is to convert presentations at the workshop into a publication, we won't steal the participants' thunder by previewing their choices. But it is clear they enjoyed the opportunity to examine


and explain archival objects.


Thanks to library colleague Susan Barribeau for the last of these photos.