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Developing a Critical Archival Practice EPHEMERAL MATERIAL: DEVELOPING A CRITICAL ARCHIVAL PRACTICE DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Alana Kumbier, B.A., M.A., M.L.I.S. The Ohio State University 2009 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Maurice E. Stevens, Adviser Professor David Horn ____________________________________ Professor Leo Coleman Adviser Comparative Studies Graduate Program Professor Timothy K. Choy Copyright, Some Rights Reserved (See: Appendix B) by Alana L. Kumbier 2009 ABSTRACT In its examination of critical archival practices developed by a variety of actors – artists, documentarians, researchers, genealogists, geneticists, activist-archivists, drag kings, and even ghostly historians – this dissertation considers how archives function, and what they mean, beyond their role as repositories for historic records. The critical archival practices I explore emerge in response to specific political, social, and cultural situations. They take a variety of forms, including exhibits, documentary films, online archives, genetic test results, oral history collections, and zines. These projects have distinct affective dimensions – they are motivated by a range of feelings, desires, and needs, and in some cases, make their appeals to and through affect. They demonstrate how archives matter at the level of the public and the private, in the making of collective histories and to the articulation of personal identities. They also show us how archives are relevant to (or can even be instruments in) struggles for social transformation, social justice, and self-determination. Whether they engage the archives as researchers or critics, or as creators and custodians of their own collections, critical archival practitioners make archives, themselves, objects of investigation. Most of the critical archival practitioners I write about explicitly challenge the myth of archival neutrality and objectivity, and ii denaturalize archival practices by drawing attention to logics that underpin them. While some practitioners destabilize these logics as they introduce alternative forms of evidence, others – particularly those invested in genetic genealogical research – call upon them in order to make claims about origin and identity. In addition to investigating archival logics, critical practitioners explore power relations in archives by attending to specific issues researchers encounter while doing archival work – navigating the archives’ organizational systems, gaining access to archives and records, negotiating security protocols, recruiting participants for oral history and other documentation projects, or (for prospective participants) deciding whether or not to participate in those projects. Their critiques suggest that projects to document and collect the records of historically underrepresented communities and constituencies can – and should – be participatory and collaborative endeavors. iii Dedicated to April, Erica, Erin, Ruby, and Tom iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My dissertation advisor, Maurice E. Stevens has been an advocate for and enthusiastic supporter of this project throughout the research and writing process. I value our shared dedication to transforming (and transformative) practice and pedagogy, and hope this dissertation exemplifies that commitment. As a committee member and reader for my thesis and dissertation projects, David Horn has challenged me, in beneficial and important ways, to clarify my terms – and has offered assistance when those challenges seemed insurmountable. Timothy K. Choy, in conversation and by example, has helped me develop ways to defamiliarize archival objects, practices, and logics. I admire his ability to represent complex ideas and objects of analysis in clear, accessible language, and appreciate his willingness to help me do the same. Leo Coleman has offered valuable advice about next steps for this project. As a reader for my third and fifth chapters, Polly Thistlethwaite asked productive, complicating questions about the project; my analyses of The Watermelon Woman and the New Orleans Drag King Collection Project are more nuanced as a result. I encountered key ideas, approaches, and theories that inform this dissertation – as well as some of its objects of analysis – in courses taught by members of my committee, and in courses with Brenda J. Brueggemann, Raimund Goerler and Tamar Chute, Thomas K. Piontek, Ruby C. Tapia, and Jennifer Terry. They have all informed my v approach to scholarly and pedagogical practice. Throughout the process, but especially during my final quarter in the Ph.D. program, Margaret Lynd answered many key procedural questions, and helped me negotiate the graduate school bureaucracy, with good humor and generosity. I thank Walid Raad for permission to reproduce Atlas Group images in my second chapter. While working on this project, I received financial support from a number of sources. A Graduate Research Small Grant and the Micheal G. Riley International Fund from The Ohio State University College of Humanities funded my travel to conduct and present research related to my second and fourth chapters. A Travel to Collections Grant from The Newcomb College Center for Research on Women allowed me to collect oral histories in New Orleans and to do work in the Newcomb Archives. Susan Tucker, the Newcomb Archivist, offered intellectual and material support for our work on the New Orleans Drag King Collection Project, and also offered me a place to stay while I was in town, and helped me get out when Hurricane Ivan was approaching. Specific chapters of this work benefited from my participation in conferences. I appreciate having had the chance to present – and have conversations about – my work at multiple International Drag King Community Extravaganzas; at the Space, Haunting, Discourse conference at the University of Karlstad in Karlstad, Sweden; at the GLBT ALMS 2008 Conference, hosted by the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies at CUNY; at the Archival Bodies graduate student conference at the University of Milwaukee- Wisconsin; at the 2005 Queer Matters conference at King’s College, London, and at the Newcomb College Center for Research on Women at Tulane University. vi I’ve been lucky to have several partners in my writing process, including Rebecca Adelman, Lakesia Johnson, Shane Landrum, Melanie Maltry, Christina Xydias, and members of the Graduate Consortium in Women’s Studies Dissertation Group at M.I.T. I benefited not only from their critical attention to my writing, but also from my engagement as a reader of their fabulous work. I owe special thanks to Yael D. Sherman, for our weekly writing sessions, her unwavering encouragement, her insightful commentary, and her good example – watching her finish her dissertation provided me with the motivation and conviction to finish my own. I’m grateful that our writing partnership yielded a good friendship, as well. Though the fifth chapter of this dissertation has a single author, it is truly the product of my conversations with fellow IDKE participant-archivists Julia Applegate and Christa Orth. The chapter also manifests my extended collaboration and close friendship with Cristina Hernandez Trotter. Cristina had the idea for the New Orleans Drag King Collection Project, and I was honored when she asked me to be her partner in that endeavor. I’m happy to have had a terrific excuse to make research trips to New Orleans to visit her and to spend hours working in the library together. I hope her importance to this project, and her contribution to my thinking, is clear. My colleagues in Information Services at Wellesley College have been wonderfully supportive as I’ve finished this project. Megan Adams Brooks, Betty Febo, Jacqueline Fitzpatrick, and Laura Reiner make going to work something I look forward to, and I’m lucky to be finishing my Ph.D. in a place where I’m already-happy to have landed. I thank Katherine McCanless Ruffin, Director of the Book Arts Program, for vii consistently asking about my progress, offering encouragement, and inviting me up to the lab to sort metal type, mix ink, and run print jobs on the Vandercook presses. My parents, William A. Kumbier and Janet Gibb—along with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins – have been encouraging, helpful, proud, and loving at all stages of my life – intellectual and otherwise. My brothers, David and Alec, have helped me not take myself too seriously. I am deeply thankful for my friends and family of choice. They are all fiercely loving. Ariel Berman helped me balance writing time with time for talking, crafting, playing Scrabble, and milking Pride the cow. Befriending Kate Bronstad improved the quality of my Boston-life exponentially; this dissertation wouldn’t be the same without the pumpkin empanadas, our urban adventures, nights at the Milky Way, or hush puppies & Red Stripes at Redbones. Milo Miller helped me understand what’s involved in the daily operation of a d.i.y. queer zine archive, and made my inbox a magical place during many late-afternoon writing sessions. I’m grateful to Milo and zis partner-in-crime, Chris Wilde, for sharing their homobody happiness with me, and for veggie meals and vibrant conversation at the revolutionary Formica kitchen table. Ruby Linhan has been an incomparable friend for many years. She is my partner in choosing to be honest, present, and alive. I totally love Erin Aults. Her inquisitive spirit and care for words – and also for
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