NOTE: The Call for Papers has passed, and paper proposals are no longer being accepted. 

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the proposal submission deadline has been extended to May 11, 2020. The Program Committee is closely monitoring the situation. We remain optimistic that we will still be able to host ICHORA 9 in late October 2020.

The 9th International Conference on the History of Records and Archives (ICHORA 9) will be held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S.A. from October 29 to 31, 2020. Submit paper proposals to ICHORA2020@umich.edu by May 11, 2020. We will notify acceptance by June 8, 2020.

ICHORA 9 will focus on Archives and the Digital World. Digital technologies have been in use for over 70 years and were, in fact, late additions to a whirlwind of new record-making and -keeping technologies that began a century before that transformed the creation, transmission, preservation, representation, and interpretation of records and archives. Digital technologies mediate how the past is documented, remembered, and commemorated. Digital recordkeeping and society are mutually constituted, a relationship that is far-reaching and challenging to predict. Despite claims of ubiquity, digital infrastructures are culturally, linguistically and historically specific, often maintaining and reinscribing longstanding power imbalances that have favoured some groups and marginalized others; but sometimes affording new opportunities for resistance to the mainstream, used by subcultures to advance their survivance, and by other groups to maintain cultural diversity.

The Program Committee seeks contributions to ICHORA 9 that will stimulate critical reflection on the evolution and development of records, archives, archival forms/genres and archival institutions in relation to the histories of digital technologies and ongoing digital transformations. Examinations of the relationship of digital technologies to indigenous communities and knowledge systems, the use of digital technologies to enhance equality or further reinforce inequality for marginalized and underrepresented communities, as well as the deployment of digital technologies in archives of resistance, activism and resurgence, are especially welcome. Areas of focus and possible topics may include: 

 

Submission and Proposal Deadline: Proposals for 20 minute papers are invited. Abstracts of 450-500 words and a short bio should be sent to ICHORA2020@umich.edu by May 11, 2020. We will advise acceptance by June 8, 2020. Following the conference, presenters may be invited to submit their contributions for a peer-reviewed publication.

Previous ICHORA conferences took place in Toronto (2003), Amsterdam (2005), Boston (2007), Perth (2008), London (2010), Austin (2012), Amsterdam (2015), and Melbourne (2018).

Program Committee: