The Future of the Archive

During the long twentieth century, displacement affected the musical, theatrical and literary output of artists and activists in myriad ways. Many works were thought to have been lost or have, until recently, languished in obscurity. Performing the Jewish Archive responds to the challenge of discovering/recovering and engaging anew with these creative artefacts, as well as stimulating the creation of new works to re-animate and extend existing archival collections. By treating archival objects as components of a non-hierarchical, non-linear system, the intention is to destabilise the relationship between past, present and future, origin and diaspora.

The Future of the Archive conference aims to act as a beacon for further research. It builds on three years of activity, based on the premise that performing Jewish archives specifically helps shed light on a host of wider cultural, scientific and political concerns.

The official language of the conference is English. It is envisaged that selected papers will be published in a volume of proceedings.

Download the conference brochure

Information about the conference fees

Please address any enquiries to ptja@leeds.ac.uk> in the first instance.

Organising Committee

• Prof Michael Berkowitz (University College London)
• Mrs Libby Clark (University of Leeds; Project Manager, PtJA)
• Dr Teryl Dobbs (University of Wisconsin-Madison; Co-Investigator, PtJA)
• Dr David Fligg (Royal Northern College of Music; Consultant, PtJA)
• Dr Stephen Muir (University of Leeds; Principal Investigator, PtJA)
• Dr Simo Muir (University of Leeds; Postdoctoral Research Fellow, PtJA)
• Dr Rupert Ridgewell (Curator of Printed Music, British Library)