Engaging the Archival Record of Danish Colonial Rule

A conversation featuring La Vaughn Belle, Helle Stenum, and Tiphanie Yanique. Moderated by Tami Navarro.

The year 2017 marked the 100th anniversary of the sale and transfer of the islands now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands from Denmark to the United States. That year, the Danish government began digitizing a number of archival records from its colonial history. Now, two years on, La Vaughn Belle, Helle Stenum, and Tiphanie Yanique discuss the significance of this project, including questions related to access and translation, as well as the nature of what can be traced, remembered, and imagined through these archives. Each speaker brings questions from their own work in creative and scholarly archival practices, and addressing structural inequalities in the archives. This conversation highlights national projects to digitize archives of historic, and often enduring, state violence.

Recorded on September 26, 2019 at Barnard College, NYC.