The ‘Family Archives in Early Modern England’ project is looking for contributions for the upcoming conference "Family Archives and their Afterlives, 1400-Present" which will take place at the University of Birmingham between the 27– 28 June 2023.
The conference seeks to bring together academics, archivists, and family historians to explore the family archive, in all its forms, from the medieval to the modern period.
Topics may include, but are by no means limited to:
- Approaches to the family archive: definitions, challenges, opportunities
- The contents and curation of specific family collections
- Access, circulation, and the ‘social life’ of archives
- Muniments and legal papers
- Exclusion and absence in the archive
- Archives and emotions
- The matriarchive and women as archivists
- Arrangement and organisation: cataloguing, inventories, storage, furniture
- Objects in/and the archive
- Visual and literary representations of family collections
- The relationship between family and institutional archives, including bequests, loans, and donations to local and national collections
- Destruction and dispersal
Please send a title, short bio, and abstract (c. 200-300 words) to: familyarchivesconference@gmail.com.
The deadline for submissions is 30 December 2022.
All papers will be considered for inclusion in an edited collection, estimated date of submission for chapters December 2023. Please make it clear on your submission if you do not wish your paper to be considered.
The conference is part of the ‘Family Archives in Early Modern England’ project, supported by the Leverhulme Trust.
More info on the conference and how to submit your abstract here.