IAMHIST is the International Association for Media and History, an organization of scholars, filmmakers, broadcasters and archivists dedicated to historical enquiry into film, radio, TV and other media.

Archives have always played a considerable role for research and creation, especially in film and media studies. By virtue of their form and content, archives put at the forefront questions of possible and alternative historiographies and the shaping of memories and invites reflection on forgetting. Ranging from censorship to emancipation, archives are often source and reason for debate, powerplays and struggles as they can be object of censorship, but also sources and ways of emancipation. They are not only sites of memory, but also sites and signs of social and cultural change. There has been an increased scholarly interest in archives since the arrival of digital tools and the Web, and the concept of the archive itself has been questioned, discussed, and redefined.

This conference aims to revisit these archival transformations by bringing into focus archives’ blind spots, notably in relation to their accessibility and ecological dimensions. How do existing archival institutions, associations or private collectors and archivists address technology and media transformations? What are the current and future challenges of archive research? Use? Configurations? What type of ‘new’ archives can be imagined and created in relation to technology and media transformations?

The IAMHIST Conference will be particularly interested in proposals dealing with media archives (film, radio, video, television, Web, photographs, etc.) but also warmly welcomes archives that use media and technology institutionally (museums, associations, vernacular archives etc.).

We invite scholars, archivists, practitioners, and artists to send a proposal that concerns one or more of the following topics:

Archives and accessibility
Archives, restitution, and memory
Archives and social justice
Archives and ecology / sustainable archives
Archives and decolonization
Case studies of archival use in media history research
Archives and (media-) storage
Reuse of archives in research, artistic projects, and practice
Archival material in film and arts
Reflections on how to archive research/scholarly activities
Vernacular, private, and institutional archives
History of media archives
Financing and funding of archives
Internationalization of archives
Local and regional archives
Archives, memory, and nostalgia
Archives and emotion