Archives at Risk

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Preservation of archives yields huge benefits for states, societies, communities, and individuals. It safeguards collective memory, fosters historical understanding, and promotes the appreciation of cultural heritage. Conversely, the loss of an archive signifies the disappearance of invaluable records and insights, hindering scholarly research, erasing cultural identities, and impeding societal progress.

Despite the pivotal role archives play in preserving history, they have inherent limitations. Archives may omit marginalized voices, perpetuate biases, or fail to encompass the entirety of human experiences. Moreover, reliance solely on archives for memory preservation overlooks alternative mediums such as oral traditions, art, and digital repositories, ensuring memory persistence even in the absence of traditional archival resources. Four leading international archivists will explore the current archive preservation situation in Ukraine, Gaza, Syria and Argentina.