Susan Maxwell
Mapping Invisible Cities: The Record Beyond the Archives
Year of entry: 2010
Status: Part time, distance studying
Research area: Archives and Records Management
Research group: Information Management Innovation (IMI)
Research topic: Archivists´ Professional, Political and Social Responsibilities for Excluded Groups
Research supervisors: Professor Julie McLeod; Dr. Alison Pickard
Background and Experience:
I have worked in archives and records management since qualifying in 1993, managing and curating information for organisations, which combined administrative and business roles with maintenance of a separate collection of information perceived to have historical value. During this time, I have encountered great changes in the perceived role of archivists and records managers, and in the expectations of an increasing variety of users. In the last ten years, there has been an increase in the professional articulation of the political role of the record (and by extension, of the records professional), in debate about the instability of the historical record, and in professional reflection on the social and political role of the institutional archives.
Research description:
My research is concerned with records usually outside the core of those valued – and consequently managed and preserved by – our social and cultural institutions. This liminal position is a result of the records being created by or about actors who are on the (unstable) margins of society, either because of political exclusion, lifestyle choice, or social role (e.g., `ordinary` rather than high-profile citizens). These concerns are intensified where the records do not possess accepted formal or juridical characteristics - for example, unmediated records.
The research will investigate a theoretical framework to inform the development of protocols for dealing with records that are beyond the (institutional) archives and, in so doing, contribute to developments in professional theory. I will take an interdisciplinary approach to this research, seeking to benefit from existing work in fields such as historiography, especially in dealing with orality and performance, heritage studies and studies in material culture.
