Archives

Chapter 23 is published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license and is free to read or download from Oxford Academic.

Archives have never been more complex, expansive, or ubiquitous. Gargantuan in scale and conception yet never sufficient or complete, the archive is on the one hand a space for empowerment and expression and on the other an instrument of constraint and repression. The way in which the archive is structured, made available, and developed plays a central role in how societies define their values and ethics. Archives: Power, Truth, and Fiction is a wide-ranging and innovative volume which highlights the vibrancy and urgency of the field by bringing together contributors from many different disciplines and backgrounds, including archivists, historians, literary scholars, digital researchers, and creative practitioners.

The archive of the twenty-first century is a fluid and multi-vocal space that challenges at every point the hegemonic and positivistic assumptions which shaped traditional ideas of the archive. The massive growth of digital archives further complicates the picture. Archives: Power, Truth, and Fiction is designed to help the reader draw threads through the rapidly changing and shifting multiverse of archives. The interdisciplinary and international contributors use a wide range of examples, from the Middle Ages to the Windrush scandal, to unsettle preconceptions, encourage debate, and draw out issues generated by the perpetual motion of the archive.

Andrew Prescott, Professor of Digital Humanities, University of Glasgow, Alison Wiggins, Reader in English Language and Manuscripts, University of Glasgow

Andrew Prescott is Professor of Digital Humanities in the School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow. He trained as a medieval historian and was a Curator in the Department of Manuscripts of the British Library between 1979 and 2000, where he was the principal curatorial contact for Kevin Kiernan’s Electronic Beowulf. Professor Prescott was Theme Leader Fellow for the AHRC strategic theme of Digital Transformations 2012-2019. He has also worked in libraries, archives, and digital humanities units at the University of Sheffield, King’s College London, and the University of Wales Lampeter.

Alison Wiggins is Reader in English Language and Manuscripts in the School of Critical Studies, University of Glasgow. She has led and collaborated on a range of archive-based digital projects, at the AHRC Centre for Editing Lives and Letters between 2002 and 2006, and then at Glasgow as PI for The Letters of Bess of Hardwick (AHRC 2009-12), as Leadership Fellow for Archives and Writing Lives (AHRC 2017-19), and currently as part of the research team analyzing Adam Smith’s Library (Templeton Foundation 2022-24). Dr Wiggins has also developed research and engagement projects with The National Trust, Chatsworth House Archives, The National Archives, The Bodleian Library, and the National Library of Scotland.