AHA Session 172
Sunday, January 5, 2025: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Clinton Room (New York Hilton, Second Floor)
Chair:
Hannah Barker, Arizona State University
Panel:
Michael McCormick, Harvard University
Seth Richardson, University of Chicago
Rhiannon Stephens, Columbia University
Camilla D. Townsend, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Li Guo, University of Notre Dame
Seth Richardson, University of Chicago
Rhiannon Stephens, Columbia University
Camilla D. Townsend, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Li Guo, University of Notre Dame
Organized by the AHA Research Division and the American Historical Review
Session Abstract
In some areas of historical research, the main challenge is archival noise. In others, it is archival silence. The concept of archival silence has been articulated primarily by historians working on quiet areas within archivally rich fields (Michel-Rolph Trouillot on the Haitian Revolution, Marisa Fuentes on enslaved women in the Caribbean). This roundtable focuses on strategies, methods, and techniques for studying areas of deep silence within fields that are already archivally quiet. Namely, it focuses on early periods, periods characterized by a lack of surviving evidence concerning many or most aspects of human experience. What counts as “early” differs by field. This roundtable is not concerned with debating the chronology of early history. Its purpose is rather to discuss and share some of the tools developed by specialists in early periods that may be useful for the broader community of historians who must work through, in, or around archival silence. The discussion will lay the foundation for a special issue of the American Historical Review highlighting innovative, distinctive methodological approaches to the challenges of studying early periods.
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