Unpacking Erasure: On the Promise and Challenges of an Elusive Object of Study

  • Date: –17:00
  • Location: På Zoom
  • Lecturer: Johan Fredrikzon och Chris Haffenden
  • Organiser: Research networks Heritage Transformations and Centre for Integrated Research on Culture and Society (CIRCUS)
  • Contact person: Cecilia Rodéhn
  • Seminarium

While collecting has received a vast amount of attention over the past few decades, the notion of erasure—that is, the deleting, removal, destruction of material, whether conscious or otherwise—has mostly remained in the shadows.

 In this workshop, we propose erasure as a starting point for promising new lines of inquiry in both contemporary and historical contexts. This requires thinking through some of the theoretical and methodological challenges of approaching an object of study often characterized by the concerted absence of source material. To do so, we turn to texts by Cornelia Vismann and Ella Klik to discuss the following questions:

What is erasure and how should we go about trying to make sense of it? How can we conceptualize different types of erasure and what might such distinctions mean? Why is this worth studying?

While our viewpoint is broadly media historical, the workshop pursues an ecumenical approach that welcomes all perspectives upon the phenomenon of erasure. Indeed, it is our firm conviction that this is a multi-faceted object of study that can, and should, be considered from a range of disciplinary perspectives! We look forward to a wide-ranging and open-ended discussion about an elusive yet compelling object of study.

Online-workshop. Zoom-link: https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/64849639525

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