While much scholarship has been devoted to the idea of the archive as a discursive apparatus that tracks, regulates, and disciplines bodies, scholars and artists alike are now investigating how the format of the archive can be utilized as a tool for advancing social justice and community empowerment. In recent years the “counter-archive” has developed as a term to describe a range of artistic, activist, community-based or otherwise non-official visual archives that reveal underrepresented and formerly undocumented histories. This discussion brings together artists, curators, and scholars on the occasion of Christian Palestinian Archive: A Project by Dor Guez in The James Gallery to discuss the role of photography and the status of the archive in understanding memory and establishing history.

The Christian Palestinian Archive (CPA) is a growing collection of scans of archival documents, documenting the personal histories of the Christian Palestinian community worldwide. The CPA was founded in 2009 by Dor Guez, and includes today thousands of scans of historical images. It is the only archive dedicated to the Christian Palestinians. Unlike other archives, the CPA is not engaged in material conservation, and all "original" photographs are sent to their owners after being scanned and added to the archive.

Cosponsored by the Mediating the Archive Mellon Seminar in Public Engagement and Collaborative Research in the Humanities and The Ph.D. Program in Art History at The Graduate Center, CUNY.

External Link »