Archives in Dialogue is a digital humanities series based at the Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies at New York University that advances equitable cross-regional exchange between archival institutions and community-based projects in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and those in the United States. Through a series of thematically driven webinars and collaborative digital activities, the project creates a shared public platform for archivists, scholars, and cultural practitioners to address ethical and methodological challenges of archiving, circulating, and writing alternative histories across geopolitical divides. To this end, the project foregrounds institutional and community-based archival practices while experimenting with Archive 2.0 methodologies that activate archival material through digital storytelling and creative activations. In addition to advancing scholarly and professional dialogue, Archives in Dialogue offers undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to engage directly with participating archives through internships and research collaborations. 

The “Reborn Sounds” archival activation is part of the second webinar in the series, titled  “The Gendered Lives of Photographic Archives.” This webinar brings together professionals from Akkasah Photographic Archive at the New York University Abu Dhabi, the American Center of Research in Jordan (ACOR), the Qatar National Library, and the Program in Museum Studies at New York University to discuss the gendered lives of photographic archives. Drawing on firsthand experience, participants discuss how archives are never neutral; they reflect the biases of those who create and maintain them, often rendering women invisible in dual ways:  as the uncredited archivists, assistants, and organizers whose labor built collections, and as photographic subjects whose images were controlled or excluded altogether. Simultaneously, the archive serves as a site where certain representations of masculinity are reinforced, tied to notions of power, colonialism, and professionalization. The archive becomes a space where gender hierarchies are both preserved and perpetuated, where presence and absence tell competing stories about power. 

Participants share concrete challenges and strategies from their professional practice, offering insights into what it means to work with and against the gendered grain of the archives on a daily basis. They reflect on how they navigate restrictions and silences around gender, how the archival labor of women can be highlighted, and how we can activate archival material as a critique to archival logics. 

For more information, please access here or contact Roxana Maria Arăş at r.aras@nyu.edu.