Unearthing Collections: Archives, Time and Ethics

An in-depth exploration of the ethical issues involved in collecting, preserving, researching, and exhibiting collections and archives.

Featuring insights from a range of scholars and collection practitioners, Unearthing Collections reconsiders the ethics of collections and archives through the lens of temporality. The volume explores the concept of “unearthing,” meaning the extractive process of uncovering the unknown, and advocates for processes of “re-earthing” to foster new ethical approaches among archivists and museum professionals in preserving and engaging with remnants of the past. It examines a diverse selection of case studies—from film and photography to medical history, geology, and contemporary art—to demonstrate how ethical challenges intersect across different types of collections and archives. 

Magdalena Buchczyk is a junior professor of social anthropology of cultural expressions at Humboldt University of Berlin.

Martín Fonck is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, Technical University of Munich.

Tomás J. Usón is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Geography at Humboldt University of Berlin.

Tina Palaic is a curator in the Department of Sustainable Development and Community Practices at the Slovene Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana.