On Friday, September 20th, anthropology graduate students convened for the first session of the new “Ethnographic Archivings” fall 2024 workshop series. This workshop session was a two-part introduction into the materiality and assembly of archives. The first half was led by Miqueias Mugge on the epistemic thresholds of archives. Mugge discussed his own work and methodologies of accessing, utilizing, and creating archives to facilitate historical research as well as knowledge production and preservation. The second half took place in the special collections of Firestone Library with Librarians Fernando Acosta-Rodríguez and Ellen Ambrosone. Students brought questions and their own work to engage in conversations with our generous workshop facilitators as well as their graduate colleagues. These conversations will continue to evolve throughout the arc of this 4-part workshop series.

The second session of “Ethnographic Archivings” takes place on October 25th and will be led by renowned scholar Ann L. Stoler, Willy Brandt Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and History at The New School for Social Research. This session is titled “Reading Against the Archival Grain” and will focus on how to complement archives and ethnographies to look to the past, present, and future.

This workshop series was organized by Nikita Taniparti G2.