Making (Up) an Archive (Article)
Title: Making (Up) an Archive
Author: Najmabadi, Afsaneh
Abstract: In a paper given at the 2013 conference of the Digital Islamic Humanities Project, Harvard professor Afsaneh Najmabadi outlines the disciplinary and theoretical considerations of establishing a multi-genre digital archive to document a historically underrepresented group in established archives: women of Iran’s Qajar dynasty (1796-1925). The Women’s Worlds in Qajar Iran is a digital repository that, as of April 2013, provides access to 33,000 images, 43 private family collections, and ten institutional collections. Professor Najmabadi, Principal Investigator on this project, emphasizes the scholastic advantages of “pull[ing] together disparate archival threads” by gathering personal and family objects, photographs, and oral histories on a digital platform. “[This] has produced a fabric that is not simply the sum total of the separate threads. The resulting fabric generates connections that facilitate doing richer histories,” states Najmabadi.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: https://osc.hul.harvard.edu/dash/2013/12/making-archive
Primary URL Description: Harvard DASH

Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran Digital Archive and Website: What Could Writing History Look Like in a Digital Age? (Article)
Title: Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran Digital Archive and Website: What Could Writing History Look Like in a Digital Age?
Author: Najmabadi, Afsaneh
Abstract: This piece focuses on the significance of the Women's Worlds in Qajar Iran project and its implications for and use by historians.
Year: 2013
Primary URL: http://historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/november-2013/material-culture-in-the-digital-frame/womens-worlds-in-qajar-iran-digital-archive-and-website
Primary URL Description: Perspectives on History (AHA) link
Format: Magazine

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