Poster presented at the 2012 iConference (with Emily Kozinski). For short paper, see: Kozinski, E., & Hank, C. (2012). Removing records documenting acts of violence and atrocities from the archive. In Proceedings of the 2012 iConference, Toronto, ON (pp. 58-59). New York, NY: The Association for Computing Machinery. doi: 10.1145/2132176.2132287.

1. Removing Records Documenting Acts of Violence and Atrocities from the Archive
Emily Kozinski and Carolyn Hank
School of Information Studies, McGill University
emily.kozinski@mail.mcgill.ca; carolyn.hank@mcgill.ca
“The work of the archivist is not simply a work of memory. It is a work of mourning.” ~ Jacques Derrida
ABSTRACT RESEARCH QUESTIONS CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
This poster identifies nations and societies where records 1) What are the implications when records documenting
What is an What is
documenting acts of mass violence were destroyed in acts of mass violence are destroyed? archive? destruction?
order to conceal evidence of wrongdoing. From an
2) What is the link between memory and archives?
extensive review of the literature, 19 cases in the 20th
and 21st century were uncovered, presented below. This 3) What is the role of professional ethics?
mapping was done parallel to a broader examination into 4) How can the contents of an archive help healing?
the importance of societies protecting documentation of
the past in order to prevent collective forgetting or denial, What are What is
ensuring that memory of past events remains. ethics? memory?
MAPPING OF CASES BY ONSET OF CONFLICT
Former Yugoslavia
1910s 1940s 1960s 1980s Wars of Secession Uzbekistan Russia
n=2 1930s n=4 1950s n=7 1970s n=6 1990s 1991-2008 Armenia Post-Communism Soviet repression
Turkish invasion 1991-Present 1945-1991
1915-1923
East Germany
Stasi
1950-1989
Spain
Francoist Era
1936-1975
Haiti
Dictatorship
Greece Cambodia
1957-1986
Military dictatorship Khmer Rouge period
1967-1974 1975-1979
Guatemala
Civil War Philippines
1960-1996 Martial Law
1972-1986
El Salvador Rwanda East Timor
Salvadorian Civil War Genocide Indonesian invasion
1980-1992 1994 Sri Lanka
Civil War 1975-1999
1983-2009
Chile Zimbabwe
Pinochet Era Post Independence
1973-1989 1980-1999
Argentina
Dirty War South Africa
1976-1983 Apartheid Era
1948-1994
DISCUSSION & IMPLICATIONS How to ensure the safety of archives The unreliability of ethics and the issues this poses Waning interest in archives for justice
Reference | Address given by Derrida on 1998 visit to South Africa, as quoted in V. Harris, Archive and Justice: A South African Perspective (Chicago: The Society of American Archivists, 2007), 301.