Archiving, exhibiting, and curating the history of feminisms in the global twentieth century: an introduction

Abstract

ABSTRACT Following the ‘archival turn’ of the 1990s and early 2000s, scholars have understood archives as entwined in epistemic hierarchies of power. The study of gender and sexuality, alongside postcolonial approaches were central to this critical shift, advancing methods that both challenged the archive as a fixed entity of historical truth and broadened perceptions of where history is made. Queer and feminist historians have since drawn attention to the archive as a site of subject-formation and radical possibilities. Building on this foundation, this special issue offers fresh perspectives on the intersection of feminism and the archive. Situating feminism as practice, politics, and method, the contributions explore how archival and curatorial practices have shaped the history of feminisms, and how feminist methods have addressed archival lacunae. This introduction discusses the collected essays in the context of the historiographies of archiving, gender, and feminism.