Guest Editors:

Jeannette A. Bastian, Professor Emerita, Simmons University
Stanley H. Griffin, Senior Lecturer, University of the West Indies
James Lowry, Associate Professor, Queens College

Open call for abstracts

A new wave of theorizing the concept of “provenance” (for example; provenance in place, crip provenance, whiteness as provenance, provenancial fabulation, de-colonizing provenance) suggests that the archival field continues to explore and re-interpret both the affordances and inadequacies of what is generally considered a foundational principle (Ghaddar 2022, pp.49-86; Brilmyer 2022, pp.1-25; Lowry 2022; Lapp 2023, pp.117-136; Aarons et. al 2022).

With its roots in early nineteenth century European archival practice, provenance has undergone successive re-interpretations through the late 20th and into the early 21st centuries. In 1993, Tom Nesmith’s groundbreaking publication, Canadian Archival Studies and the Rediscovery of Provenance  (Nesmith 1993) not only re-awakened a recognition of provenance as the fundamental archival principle but presciently suggested that provenance will continue to evolve not only as a principle but as an interpretive lens.

These successive re-interpretations have moved provenance from the literal to the conceptual. Each step has contributed to the ambiguity of provenance but at the same time deepened and enriched archival representation and use by expanding the meanings and values contained in records. Today provenance can be understood “not so much as a method for organizing records, but as an intellectual construct created through the archivists’ analysis of the numerous relationships that exist between records, creators and functions” (Douglas 2017, p.33).

Such a definition invites creative application and interpretation.

In this special issue of Archival Science, the guest editors welcome articles that both reflect the current state of provenance and also push the boundaries, and that play with, criticize or de/re-construct “provenance”.

Possible topics include:

• Decentering provenance as a key archival precept: what other ways of organizing and contextualizing records present themselves when we set aside inherited understandings of the centrality of provenance?
• Historical or contemporary studies that surface non-Western ways of organizing and contextualizing archives or thinking about provenance.
• Provenance’s interpretive possibilities: what meanings are made or obscured when different lenses are used to understand archives? How interpreting records through different provenances re-orients their meaning. (for example; through the lens of social justice, Indigenous communities, community archives, the records continuum, social history, gender, minoritized populations).
• Provenance in different formats (for example: photographs, film, digital and analogue artifacts, oral records, manuscripts, institutional records, storytelling, social media) and what the materiality of records suggests for what is a theoretical construct.
• Provenance in relationship to other archival functions (for example; appraisal, description, arrangement) and concepts (such as custody, authority, authenticity).
• Is ‘provenance’ the word? A linguistic reflection on other ways of ascribing creativity, historical, cultural and societal connections to materials of enduring value.
• Defenses or re-articulations of orthodox interpretations and applications of the concept of provenance.
• Monetizing provenance? The influences of heritage market demand on questions of authenticity, origin, ownership and profitability of claiming, collecting, and owning archives.

Key dates

Abstract Submission deadline: August 20, 2023
Notification of acceptance of Abstracts: September 15, 2023
Article Submission deadline: December 31, 2023
Review time: January – June 2024

Submission Instructions

Abstracts (500–1,000 words) and a short bio (200 words) should be emailed to the guest editors at jbastian6@gmail.com by August 20, 2023. The editors will notify authors whether their abstract is or is not accepted by September 15, 2023. Authors whose abstracts are accepted should submit their full paper for peer review by December 31, 2023.

Acceptance of an abstract does not imply ultimate acceptance of the completed paper for publication, as articles for inclusion in the special issue will go through a rigorous peer review process.

• Full paper submissions will be made online via the Archival Science Editorial Manager system. Please select article type “SI: Provenance” upon submission of the full paper.

• Authors are encouraged to follow the journal suggestion for papers not to exceed 7,000-8,000 words and are expected to conform to the journal’s publication guideline

References

Aarons J et al. (eds) (2022) Archiving Caribbean identity, records, community and memory. Routledge, London

Brilmyer G (2022) Toward a crip provenance: centering disability in archives through its absence. J Contemporary Arch Stud 9:1-25

Douglas J (2017) Origins and beyond. In: MacNeil H & Eastwood T (eds.) Currents of Archival Thinking (2nd. ed) Libraries Unlimited, California. pp 25-52

Ghaddar JJ (2022) Provenance in place: crafting the Vienna Convention for global decolonization and archival repatriation. In: Lowry J (ed.) Disputed Archival Heritage. Routledge, London, pp 49-86

Lapp J (2023) ‘The only way we know how’: provenancial fabulation in archives of feminist materials. Arch Sci 23:117-136  

Lowry J (2022) Whiteness as provenance. Provenance in Place Symposium, Dalhousie University, 7 March 2022

Nesmith T (ed.) (1993)  Canadian archival studies and the rediscovery of provenance. Scarecrow Press, New Jersey