Welcome to a symposium on minority archives on the 30th of November 2026, from 13.00 to 17.30, at Åbo Akademi, Astra, Bonfire.
Being an Archive: Minority Perspectives, Collections, and Research
Åbo Akademi University is a minority university that is home to a number of archives, both large and small. Within the university’s minority research profile, different kinds of minorities are explored. But what is a minority archive, and what can it be? From which perspectives are materials collected and managed, and which voices are given space?
This seminar brings together archivists, researchers, students, and other interested participants for a shared discussion on the creation, maintenance, and use of archives that are relevant to minorities and minority research. The seminar takes as its starting point the multifaceted significance of archives for research, as well as the importance of archival practices for minorities. Particular emphasis is placed on initiatives undertaken by archives themselves. We also wish to highlight connections between archives and activism, and to consider how archives can contribute to greater visibility and improved positions in society, as well as the effects that digitalisation may have specifically on minority research.
Keynote Speakers:
Tuula Juvonen (Tampere University): Doing and Changing Archives: Are archives a safe repository for sexual and gender minorities’ materials?
Eija Stark (Finnish Literature Society): Archives are life, not just history: How the mundane realities of historical lives and archival classifications challenge researchers
Panels:
Researchers Meet Archives: Which perspectives and themes demand attention, and how can researchers influence archives?
Moderator: Päivi Salmesvuori
Panelists: Alexandra Nummenpää, Nikolaos Paraschis and Jutta Ahlbeck
Archives Meet Researchers: Discovering Intersectionality in the Multifaceted and Partial
Moderator: Fredrik Nilsson
Panelists: Nina Nyman, Anna-Stina Häggblom, Matias Kaihovirta and Hanna Dahlbom
The keynote lectures will be given in English, while the panel discussions will be held in Swedish. Audience members are welcome to use either Swedish or English.
The symposium builds on discussions of history and historiography, materiality and memory, processes of making visible and invisible, addressed at previous annual minority seminars under the themes “Writing In, Writing Out – Historicizing Agency, Mobility and Positionality” (2019), “Minority Experiences and European Narratives: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives” (2021), and “Contesting the Collective Past: Exploring Testimony and Cultural Memory in Minority Research” (2023).
Kindly register to the symposium here.
