AHA Session 261
Sunday, January 5, 2025: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM
New York Ballroom West (Sheraton New York, Third Floor)
Chair:
Jana K. Lipman, Tulane University
Panel:
Manan Ahmed, Columbia University
Bedross Der Matossian, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Daniela Moraes Traldi, Columbia University
Jinghong Zhang, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Gerald J. Steinacher, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Bedross Der Matossian, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Daniela Moraes Traldi, Columbia University
Jinghong Zhang, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Gerald J. Steinacher, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Session Abstract
The rise of illiberal and authoritarian governments across the globe poses sizeable challenges to historians. Scholars have always had to contend with classification in state archives, access to private archives, and secrecy in both. This is true in both liberal democracies and more authoritarian states. However, recent repressive turns against historical scholarship cut into the basic practices of research and pose new challenges for scholars researching everything form gender politics to genocide. This roundtable offers a comparative global perspective and includes scholars who are conducting research in the Middle East, China, Latin America, and the Vatican and Central Europe.
How do scholars continue to conduct research in authoritarian, or increasingly illiberal conditions? What are the risks and limitations to their archival practices? What practices allow scholars to ethically conduct “sensitive” research, which may refute government narratives and legal protocols? What are the limits to scholars’ ability to navigate this landscape? The roundtable will allow colleagues to reflect on the responsibilities, opportunities, and risks for historians in our contemporary moment.
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