Working with queer archives through radical empathy

Fife, Kirsty ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8730-612X (2024) Working with queer archives through radical empathy. In: Sage Research Methods: Diversifying and Decolonizing Research. SAGE Publications. ISBN 9781529691269

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Abstract

Research about queer archives has grown exponentially over recent decades. Projects have used archives as sources (Cifor, 2017; Halberstam, 2005), examined the formation and management of queer community-led archive organisations (Taves Sheffield, 2020), and queered archival processes (Lee, 2017). As the visibility of queer histories within research and heritage practice has increased, ethical tensions have surfaced about the cost of this visibility, extractive research and collecting practices, and inequitable power dynamics between institutionally located research and archival practices and minoritised community members. This guide elaborates on ethical practice in relation to queer archival research, focusing on how the concept of “radical empathy” (Caswell & Cifor, 2016) can inform interactions with queer archives throughout the lifecycle of an archive research project. Proponents of radical empathy argue for archivists to be “seen as caregivers, bound to records creators, subjects, users, and communities through a web of mutual affective responsibility” (Caswell & Cifor, 2016, p. 24). The guide elaborates on radical empathy in practice in relation to finding, using, and connecting with queer archives. I will argue that, when applied to research encounters, radical empathy enables researchers to make decisions informed by care, empathy, and commitment to structural change, resulting in justice-led research outputs.