Session D6
Tracks
Track D: Next Generation - Rethinking Training, Outreach and Inclusivity
| Thursday, August 28, 2025 |
| 2:55 PM - 3:55 PM |
Overview
Individual Papers
Chair:
Archives as Dwelling Place: Navigating welcome from the state archive
Dr Chloe Lee, Empire And Commonwealth Records Specialist, The National Archives
The Next Generation is Intergenerational: Reconceptualising the archive as a site of intergenerational connections
Miss Nella McNicol, Project Officer, University Of Glasgow
Chair:
Archives as Dwelling Place: Navigating welcome from the state archive
Dr Chloe Lee, Empire And Commonwealth Records Specialist, The National Archives
The Next Generation is Intergenerational: Reconceptualising the archive as a site of intergenerational connections
Miss Nella McNicol, Project Officer, University Of Glasgow
Speaker
Dr Chloe Lee
Records Specialist
The National Archives
Archives as Dwelling Place: Navigating welcome from the state archive
2:55 PM - 3:15 PMAbstract
The archive is a dwelling place not only for the historical record, but also for people. Nonetheless, ideas of welcome and hospitality are not often associated with the archive despite engagement and inclusion often being at the heart of organisational strategy. To complicate things further, records and archives can be key sites of trauma. For those who belong to groups that have been historically marginalised or have lived experience of diaspora or trauma at the hands of the state, the experience of engaging with archives, and specifically government records, is challenging. Leading practitioners Nicola Laurent and Kirsten Wright, have outlined five broad principles to trauma-informed approaches in the archive:- safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. By centring people and attending to their experiences, this approach leans into the potential of the archive for liberatory memory work, healing and justice, whilst acknowledging the intersections that can make this work challenging, In this paper, Dr Chloe Lee, explores welcome and hospitality as a response to trauma-informed approaches to the archive. Using findings from workshops at The National Archives, co-delivered with Bethany Thompson, and documented by illustrator, Angela Vives, the session will discuss the affective possibilities of the archive, and how storytelling forms part of the methodology of welcome and hospitality.
Biography
With an interdisciplinary background in history and theatre, Chloe has worked laterally across the collection at The National Archives, first as a researcher contributing to programming marking 75 years of arrival of the Empire Windrush and more recently as Records Specialist for Empire and Commonwealth Records. In post, she has lead on outreach work at Tilbury Port, as well as collaborations with The Migration Museum in Lewisham. She is also the passionate host of On the Record, the official podcast of The National Archives. Her internal research project Archives as Dwelling Place was funded by the Strategic Research Fund at The National Archives and forms the focus of her paper.
Chloe is most interested in people at the centre of records and is developing her practice at The National Archives, looking at the intersections present in the archive, between policy and process, information management and historical interpretation, guidance and support.
Miss Nella McNicol
Project Officer
University Of Glasgow
The Next Generation is Intergenerational: Reconceptualising the archive as a site of intergenerational connections
3:15 PM - 3:35 PMAbstract
This paper proposes that embracing the archive as a site of intergenerational connections and utilising intergenerational practice in the archival process would be an effective method of democratising records and illustrating the archive’s value to broader society.
It will be argued in the paper that the links between the activities of intergenerational practice are eminently compatible with the role of the archive in society, and that embracing some of the key tenets of intergenerational practice as a lens for the archive profession, we can better understand and advocate for the archive as an institution and the profession.
The paper aims to encourage professionals in the sector to adopt intergenerational practice as a new and effective solution for making the archive more collaborative, engaging, and representative of the communities they serve.
It will be argued in the paper that the links between the activities of intergenerational practice are eminently compatible with the role of the archive in society, and that embracing some of the key tenets of intergenerational practice as a lens for the archive profession, we can better understand and advocate for the archive as an institution and the profession.
The paper aims to encourage professionals in the sector to adopt intergenerational practice as a new and effective solution for making the archive more collaborative, engaging, and representative of the communities they serve.
Biography
A recent Information Management and Preservation graduate from the University of Glasgow, Nella McNicol has continued expanding her knowledge of the archives and recordkeeping sector working as a Project Officer on the AHRC-funded research project Our Heritage, Our Stories. Through facilitating and developing numerous workshops and events for external partners and community groups, Nella supported the project's aim to dissolve barriers between different collections by encouraging archives to link in, share work, and promote community-generated digital content.
Nella has extensive experience engaging with community heritage and archive materials across various sectors. Her interest in archival research began in 2016 when she participated in the ‘In-Between’ oral history project organised by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity in Warsaw. During this project, she was involved in conducting interviews with representatives of local communities and digitising materials they shared, which documented their unique experiences living in the borderlands of Ukraine, Poland, and Slovakia. She has previously worked as an Archive Researcher in the TV industry, sourcing archival materials for multiple UK broadcasters.
Her research focuses on intergenerational practice in the archival process, approaches to democratising archive materials and exploring methods of engaging non-users of the archive.
