How can we use the current political climate we’re in right now to shape the needs of memory work?
Earlier this year in April 2025, the Liberatory Archives and Memory programme at Whose Knowledge? hosted its 5th UK convening in Brighton, bringing together scholars, practitioners, artists and memory workers. It was a consolidation of the journey of the UK Community of Practice that started in Bristol in April 2024 and was deepened in learning spaces that took place virtually, in Birmingham and in London. The convening was collectively designed to respond to the urgency of preserving what’s being lost and cultivating the processes and practices that were developed in order to preserve our communities’ histories in effective and inclusive ways. Guided by the shared commitment to centre community-led process of our network, the convening was comprised of lightning talks presented by the participants and four thematic working groups on: (1) Care in Archival Work, (2) Language, (3) Technology, Digitalisation, & IP, and (4) Structures and Institutions.
From the discussion on care, the participants identified six methods for integrating care work into memory work across all levels—from the individual to the collective to the institutional. The working group on language reflected on what’s being lost through technical jargon and the harm caused by particular terminologies, emphasizing the importance of inclusive and accessible language. Meanwhile, the working group on technology addressed the need to reconstruct tech into something that works for us not against us. Finally, the Structures and Institutions group’s discussion focused on the overarching power dynamics between institutions and marginalized communities and how we can dismantle those systems of oppression.
The following audio reflections, recorded during the Brighton convening, feature members of the UK Community of Practice addressing the urgent question: How can we use the current political climate we’re in right now to shape the needs of memory work?
Iman Khan, PhD scholar
Loughborough University London / Loughborough Action for Palestine
I use history and understanding colonialization at its roots to understand. And you need to use archives. You need to go back in history and you need documentation of history.
Q: Can you please introduce yourself and tell us what brought you here?
A: I’m Iman Khan. I’m a fourth year PhD student studying decolonizing university curriculum and what brought me here was that I’m a decolonial scholar so I’m looking back into the origins of why the curriculum is so colonized in the first place. My methodology is basically decolonial genealogy so I’m looking back at why do we keep promoting the same white men? Why does the BAME awarding gap exist? I use history and understanding colonialization at its roots to understand. And you need to use archives. You need to go back in history and you need documentation of history. I feel like colonial institutions don’t really teach you how to do that in a very decolonial and very community orientated way, avoiding extractivism, so because I lack the knowledge of how to approach decolonial archiving and using that knowledge for my research, I was like let me come here and learn more from these amazing people.
Q: How can we use the current political moment that we’re in right now to shape the needs of the memory work that we all do as a community?
A: I believe we’re at a very exciting time because a lot of people believe that we’re seeing the crumble of an empire. And you know, it was something I never thought I would personally witness. And because we are witnessing it within the imperial core, there is a lot of momentum going on because people are finally able to make transnational links between systems of oppression that oppress us globally, worldwide. I do believe that because we have the technology now, especially social media, that when we… For example, I talk about this in my presentation but when they were using tear gas in Palestine, then when in Ferguson they were using the exact same tear gas can from CRT. Because Palestinians recognize the same tear gas can, they were like “guys, if you stay close to the police they can’t use it on you.” And I mean, that was so transformative because they realized “oh my gosh, they’re deploying the exact same brand of tear gas on us.”
Devika, PhD scholar
University of Oxford / Bodleian Libraries / Uncomfortable Oxford
Right now, more than ever, it has become important to foster international ties. Not just international, interracial, intercommunal, basically foster as many ties as possible.
Q: Can you please introduce yourself and tell us what brought you here?
A: My name is Devika and I’m someone who works with knowledge and power to put it most simply. What brought me here was a friend who actually did a workshop with the group and said that this is something that might interest me.
Q: How’s it going for you right now?
A: Oh god, I love it. It’s such a refreshing group to be a part of and the conversations that I’m getting to be a part of that I usually don’t get in that space. So it’s incredible.
Q: How can we use the current political climate we’re in right now to shape the needs of memory work?
A: I’m usually the person who sits in rooms and asks more questions rather than the person who actually gives answers, per say. Because I’m always very unsure of what an answer is. I know that’s not the answer this question prompts because my next question would automatically become what’s the political context that you’re talking about. Are we looking at a global political context? Are we looking at a national political context? Are we looking at a more localized, regional… Basically it keeps going further down and down.
But having said that, I feel there are pockets of resistance to be found within any political context you’re looking at. On one hand, I can very easily say that you know the current political context if you’re looking at neocolonial ideology, which would mean we’re looking at the political context as the United States political context and not the rest of the world. In that particular area, I would probably say we need to put all our resources together and band together as allies as much as we can to support memory work and to archive memory work. Right now, more than ever, it has become important to foster international ties. Not just international, but also interracial, intercommunal, basically fostering as many ties as possible. Right now is not the time to catalogue, group together, but basically band together as much as we can. But that’s a very United States outlook to give.
Having said that, I feel like there is some really critical work happening in other countries when it comes to memory work. Germany has just started conversations on what liberating archives means. And I was a part of that project and simultaneously well– Australia and New Zealand has been doing incredible work for decades and believe it or not, they might already have — and this is a hope, this is not necessarily knowledge, but this is a hope– that they already have infrastructure and institutions built up that we could most likely rely on. Just like I would say when it comes to oral traditions, there are massive communities within Asia, within Latin America, that are probably doing work that may not be traditional memory work but they have been able to do a very good job at preserving it. Right now is the time to look for — I don’t want to call it alternative because that signifies a mainstream– but right now is the time to find resources from as many people as we can. So foster more connections to find memory work people and not band together to resist this one force which we think is the United States and governmental policies at the moment. But more so that there’s a threat coming from all directions and it won’t work out unless we actually band together.
Maya Sharma, Head and CEO
Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre & Education Trust
Q: Can you state your name, what you do, and how’d you find yourself here?
A: My name is Maya Sharma. I am the head of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre & Education Trust, an anti-racist library based in Manchester. How did I find myself here? Well, I got connected with a woman who is an academic at Manchester University who put me in the network. I’ve heard of the network before, [but] couldn’t get to the Birmingham meeting which I was really gutted about, but really really pleased to be here.
Q: In response to the current political moment that we’re in right now, how do we address the needs of memory workers and archivists?
A: I’ve been thinking about this a lot and my organization, we’re about to do a strategic review because we kind of have a bit of a strategic plan but it was formed five years ago. So, we’re going to do a whole exercise looking at the current environment right now and what we need to be doing and what do our communities need from us and so on. And I think it’s a scary time, not just because of what’s going on but because of how quickly we seemed to have unraveled and be unraveling. I think archives are more important now than ever in terms of documenting what has been and what’s going on now. It’s really important to act as testimony, testifying, recording what’s going on but particularly for us to do it in our own words, in our own voices, through our eyes, rather than other people to document for ourselves. We need to be using the archives, it’s not just about forming and preserving archives but actually about using them to, you know for example, a lot of the narratives have made their way quite comfortably into mainstream political discourse are actually, you know, if you look at British fascism over the last hundred years, you see ideas from fascism that are now mainstream. I think we could use archives and libraries like ours, to shine a spotlight on that to say these things that seem like really reasonable mainstream ideas are actually real extreme. They’re extremist.
But what I was thinking about also is that we need to mobilize now more than ever. We need to protect the spaces we have, as well as, working for more spaces. But I don’t want to lose the joy and creativity as well. I don’t want us to be defined by the horribleness that’s going on. Our archives, the ones we look after in Manchester, are full of stories of activism, fighting deportation, fighting racist violence, they’re full of resilience. But they’re full of joy as well. Some people talk about whether it’s food or cultural practices or forming relationships or finding fun and enjoyment in the most hostile environments and I think we need to keep hold of that and not to define ourselves entirely by the political onslaught and the increasingly hostile environment.
Q: Because you’re connected in some way to the University of Manchester, what role would universities have in both perpetuating but also helping resist these kinds of political moments?
A: There’s all kinds of ways we see universities perpetuating this moment; Iman (Khan) was talking about the connection between armed manufactures and universities. Universities are now private corporations, they are profit making organizations and we see them having to just chase that profit left, right and center. I think they can be and are incredibly harmful in terms of giving validity to certain ideas and certain forms of scholarship. And also in excluding people from conversations and devaluing or denying their authority, their scholarship. But there are also– I work with some amazing academic colleagues who are really trying to subvert from within. And I know they are having a really exhausting and horrible time but I salute their work and their resilience for going onto the campus day in and day out. I guess, organizations like mine — not that I’m holding us up as a kind of pinnacle of anything– but the fact that we got this really interesting both in the university and outside the university. At the moment it feels like we’re trying to use the space we have with the university and use this miniscule bit of funding for the good, the greater good, all the stuff we’re talking about today.
Q: It’s like taking the role of a critical friend to the university.
A: Yeah, yeah. Like again, I sort of see our role and my role as the head as trying to subvert and obstruct and disrupt as much as I possibly can without losing us our funding.
Q: Of course, it is very much like a tightrope.
A: It is. You know universities, there’s such great stuff that has gone on and still goes on in universities. And so many people here today are studying for their PhDs or are attached, so you know we could just turn our backs on universities and reject it as an entirely hostile space. And I wouldn’t blame anyone for doing that, but I feel like we have to keep pushing and keep fighting.
Jenny Williams, Arts and Heritage Consultant and Producer
Take The Space
Q: Please can you introduce yourself and how you found yourself here today.
A: My name is Jenny Williams and I’m an arts and heritage consultant and producer. I live in Eastbourne in East Sussex, so I was aware of this through my engagement with Tola Dabiri and Tony Kalume from Diversity Lewes.
Q: When it comes to the political moment we’re in right now, what do we need to do to address the needs of archiving work and memory work overall? People in previous interviews have stated things about transnational solidarity as a way of learning resistance moves to preserve our histories. How about you, from either a local, national, or international perspective?
A: Really good, thank you. My work is very much in EDI/DEI, which as we know is under assault in some climates globally. And actually when we think about what needs to be done is we need to make sure the work is embedded in practice. If we embedded DEI, equity work, transformative inclusion into the very fabric of how we work, then this work won’t go. And it doesn’t matter if people are saying “We don’t like your DEI plan, we don’t like the words that are written,” I don’t care. Because actually our practice is embedded in the principles, so we carry on either way. We don’t need that piece of paper. I’m good.
Kayonaaz Kalyanwala, PhD Scholar
Q: Please let us know who you are and how you came to be here.
A: Hi, my name is Kayonaaz and I came to be here through this meeting in Bangkok in December where I met and ran into Ezrena and she was telling me about LAMy’s work and I was very interested in it. And she said she’d keep in touch and let me know when the next convening was and so here we are. And it’s been such a wonderful two-days of learning so much about memory work and what different people are doing and all their fascinating projects. It’s really wonderful.
And to reflect on the question about the current political moment, I think, the current political moment almost feels like a death rattle of patriarchy, of the heteronormative forces that feel challenged, and I think, our work as people who keep memories alive a lot of these memories, especially in the context of the last two days, have been so much about resistance. Whether it’s everyday acts of resistance or whether it’s more organized social movements to challenge very very hegemonic structures where we’ve existed. I think it’s extremely powerful to be doing this work right now because we must document– like someone was saying earlier that there are difficult things to see in this archive but we can’t cover them up for fear of traumatizing or triggering. These have to be brought into context of where we are now and to be able to learn from what happened in the past in order to not repeat it, but also in the context of it is actually being repeated, it is even more powerful to resist, to document the ways in which people resist, to make community. Because to make community is such a powerful way to say we are not going to be divided, which is so much of what the current political moment is about. It’s about us and them and you know, people trying to just hone in on the difference. Whereas memory work is so much about building community. And in all these senses, it’s important to even take a step back and look at the bigger picture of what we’re doing so that we can actually build a stronger resistance by learning from each other and networking within us to find our strengths.
Paula Ogun Hector, Founder & Creative Director
Q: Would you be able to tell us your name and what brought you here?
A: My name is Paula Ogun Hector and I lead Tapestry of Black Britons. I had come here today because I wanted to engage in the very latest thinking around digital archiving. Essentially as a very small community and trust company, I’ve been working very hard on my own. I was so grateful to be invited to this convention because it’s allowed me to access a massive network. It’s an international network of thinkers and practitioners in this digital archiving space. It’s very useful for somebody who works on their own to make these connections. I’ve learned so much. I’m particularly grateful to the Black Southwest Network for letting me know about this convention because this is enabling me to further my understanding, to develop my own practice, and it’s going to be very very useful for further collaborations and funding applications.
As Tapestry of Black Britons tours and develops, it can only do this through creative collaborations. This project is all about research and disseminating knowledge so we can be informed, uplifted, and come together. It’s a metaphor for the connectedness of human beings and our place on the planet. And this project is all about connection, it’s all about that interconnectedness. But it’s also about justice and who is getting to control that space, who is getting to control that narrative. It’s so important that we’re coming together like this as a collective, to disseminate knowledge, to raise questions, to ensure that the voices from the margins come into the center. That is crucial. That’s what this is all about. That we are centering ourselves in this new space so that we’re not pushed to the margins. You know as the Tapestry tours, it’s very much intertwined with the ethos of LAMy because we are all about disseminating inclusive narratives and ensuring that the marginalized don’t just stay on the edges, that we come to the center.
Q: And how do you find that the national political context plays in marginalizing people further and what can we do to prevent that?
A: The climate that we’re in right now is very disheartening. But the thing is that the times always change and the people who actually believe in inclusion, we remain the same. This work continues. And it’s so important that it looks like the tide has turned against us in this new political landscape, we will move forward regardless. And we will continue to take up space. We will continue to disrupt. We will continue to ask questions. We will continue to make sure we are not forgotten. And that’s the power of coming together in spaces like this and connecting across the world.
Tré Ventour-Griffiths, PhD Scholar
Q: Would you be able to let me know who you are and what brought you here?
A: My name is Tré, and you (Japheth Monzon) signposted me for this event.
Q: And how are you finding it?
A: I really enjoyed it yesterday. And I’m looking forward to it today. It’s quite different to the usual sorts of events on this. A lot of these sorts of events are led by academia and it’s a very different field. And it’s less, it’s more extractive than academic conferences where people talk at you for a whole day. Rather than having a more interactive element to it. So I really like what you’ve done here over the last couple of days.
Q: And it’s like a flow of knowledge here. So, the next question I wanted to ask is how can we use the current political moment you’re in right now to shape the needs of the memory work we do?
A: I think, the stuff you guys do, it would be of interest to the local [community]. Even though national and international is important, sometimes we can overstretch ourselves when it comes to resources as well. If everyone did what they could, in their own area then people could come together as a collective whole rather than having to do everything everywhere at the same time.
Q: What’s your work centered on?
A: Caribbean communities and history in Northamptonshire after 1942. So Windrush and the post-Windrush, but specifically in a county. So Northampton, Willingborough and 01:50 (SP?), and the surrounding villages, so yea it’s very very specific.
Q: Has exploring the local really helped for the communities in the local area?
A: Yeah, definitely. It gives you more of a connection to where you live, as well. I find stuff like that is quite useful for people who come to the area from other places, and don’t know about, like university towns and places like that.
Co-designers: Dr. Carol Ann Dixon, Anthony Kalume, Dr. Tola Dabiri, Danni Ebanks-Ingram, Japheth Monzon, Dr. Savita Vij
Co-leads: Sally Al-Haq, Ezrena Marwan
Transcription: Kilhah A. St. Fort
Interviewer: Japheth Monzon, Black South West Network
Illustrator: Alima Rico at Ourisuals