Proposals are sought from scholars (from any discipline), practitioners, performers, dramatists, composers and educationalists for a major AHRC-funded conference responding to the theme The Future of the Archive. Papers, panels, performances, compositions, stage works, and other non-standard formats are encouraged.

Whilst the event is organised under the auspices of the AHRC-funded project Performing the Jewish Archive (www.ptja.leeds.ac.uk), we seek to broaden our enquiries by welcoming contributors working on related problems and archives. It is intended that this major conference will result in at least one publication.

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.

Please note that The Future of the Archive does not overlap or conflict with Beyond Camps and Forced Labour (10-12 January 2018), and elements of cooperation are being planned between the two conferences. Rather, Beyond Camps delegates and speakers are warmly encouraged to submit proposals for The Future of the Archive, given the two conferences’ close proximity and complementary themes.