Archiving Like A Feminist
 

MS-055_1_1_1_6, Publicity material for a women's fair organised by Comet Media Foundation for the 8th National Conference of Women's Studies held by the Indian Association of Women's Studies (IAWS) at SNDT Women's University in Pune, 2000, Chandita Mukherjee Papers, Archives at NCBS. 

Date: 22nd and 23rd May 2025 
Time: 9 am to 6 pm 
Venue: Malgova Auditorium, National Centre for Biological Sciences - TIFR, Bangalore 
Format: In person only 
Organisers: Archives at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) 
Participants: Invited participants, with a final performance session open to the public. 

CONCEPT NOTE 

This two-day gathering is hosted by the Archives at NCBS, a public centre for the history of science in contemporary India based at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, in collaboration with the Museum of Art & Photography to further work in India within the discipline of archival science.   

We hope to cover a few key areas: a) examining the ways in which the histories of women’s movements in India have been recorded, b) the challenges of archiving the lives of women and women’s work across disciplines, and c) examining archival theory and methods using feminist methodologies to arrive at a roadmap for building inclusive archives. We also hope to open up space for discussions about archival labour, which is seen as feminised and rarely treated as intellectual work – often overlooked in academic discussions about archives and archiving.  

Archivists and historians alike have pointed to the subjectivity of archives, and their role in shaping what gets recorded as history and what gets left out. The contributions of women in public life, their work, including that of care, as well as the texture of their daily lives, is often missing from historical records. While we will tackle important questions of gender and representation in archives in India, we will also look beyond representation to interrogate conventional archival theory and practice, and ways in which it can be transformed by feminisms. Our goal is to facilitate discussions – structured and unstructured – between participants in a relaxed and informal setting, and to bring archivists, activists, artists and scholars in conversation with each other in order to reimagine archival practice. 

Link to Archiving Like a Feminist: Concept Note, Schedule and Speakers

Link to "Hearing Herstories, Singing Sisterhood – Performing the Feminist Archive" by Shruthi Veena Vishwanath

Photographs from Archiving Like a Feminist, May 22-23, 2025