From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives

  • Michelle Caswell
  • Marika Cifor

Abstract

Much recent discussion about social justice in archival studies has assumed a legalistic, rights-based framework to delineate the role of records, archives, and archivists in both the violation of human rights and in holding individuals and governments accountable for basic human rights, such as the right to life, privacy, and freedom of expression. Yet decades of feminist scholarship have called into question the universality of a rights-based framework, arguing instead that an ethics of care is a more inclusive and apt model for envisioning and enacting a more just society. This article proposes a shift in the theoretical model used by archivists and archival studies scholars to address social justice concerns – from that based on individual rights to a model based on feminist ethics. In a feminist ethics approach, archivists are seen as caregivers, bound to records creators, subjects, users, and communities through a web of mutual affective responsibility. This article proposes four interrelated shifts in these archival relationships, based on radical empathy.


RÉSUMÉ

Une grande partie des discussions récentes dans le domaine des études archivistiques au sujet de la justice sociale ont adopté un cadre légaliste axé sur les droits pour définir le rôle des documents, des centres d’archives et des archivistes tant dans les questions de violations des droits humains que pour tenir les individus et les gouvernements responsables quant aux questions des droits humains de base, tels le droit à la vie, à la vie privée et à la liberté d’expression. Pourtant, depuis des décennies les écrits scientifiques féministes ont mis en doute l’universalité d’un cadre axé sur les droits, affirmant plutôt que l’éthique de la sollicitude est un modèle plus inclusif et plus pertinent pour envisager et mettre en place une société plus juste. Cet article propose le changement du modèle théorique dont se servent les archivistes et les spécialistes en études archivistiques pour répondre aux questions de justice sociale – remplaçant celui basé sur les droits individuels par celui basé sur l’éthique féministe. Dans l’approche d’éthique féministe, les archivistes sont perçus comme gardiens responsables, liés aux créateurs de documents, aux sujets, aux utilisateurs et aux communautés grâce à un réseau de liens de responsabilités qui sont mutuellement affectifs. Cet article propose quatre changements inter-reliés dans ces rapports archivistiques, basés sur une empathie radicale.

Author Biographies

Michelle Caswell

Michelle Caswell is an assistant professor of archival studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her research explores how communities create and use records and archives, with a particular focus on communities that have experienced human rights abuse, discrimination, and/or marginalization. Her book, Archiving the Unspeakable: Silence, Memory and the Photographic Record in Cambodia (University of Wisconsin Press, 2014), explores the social life of a collection of mug shots taken by the Khmer Rouge regime. She is also the author of more than 25 research articles published in Archival Science, the American Archivist, Archivaria, Libri, the Public Historian, Archives and Manuscripts, International Journal of Human Rights, Interactions, and First Monday. In 2014, she guest edited a special double issue of Archival Science focused on archives and human rights. Caswell is also the co-founder of the South Asian American Digital Archive, an online repository that documents and provides access to the diverse stories of South Asian Americans.

Marika Cifor

Marika Cifor is a PhD pre-candidate in Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where she is also pursuing a concentration certificate in Gender Studies. Her critical archival studies research explores affects in and of archives, community archives, queer and feminist theories, and collective memory. Her work has been published in Archival Science, the American Archivist, and TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. Cifor is an editor of InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies and the guest editor of a special issue of Archival Science on Affect and the Archive, Archives and Their Affects, with Anne J. Gilliland. She holds an MS in Library and Information Science, with a concentration in Archives Management, and an MA in History from Simmons College, Boston.

Published
2016-05-06
How to Cite
Caswell, Michelle, and Marika Cifor. 2016. “From Human Rights to Feminist Ethics: Radical Empathy in the Archives”. Archivaria 81 (May), 23-43. https://www.archivaria.ca/index.php/archivaria/article/view/13557.
Section
Articles