A meta-methodological volume edited by Yves Gambier, Laura Ivaska and Outi Paloposki
This book will be put together as an activity of the Archives Working Group of the History and Translation Network. We wish to thank the working group members for sharing their invaluable thoughts and insights in the planning process of this book.
The volume will function as a methodological guide on how to do research on translation-related topics using archives. We warmly welcome proposals for chapters that focus on the meta level or the methodological aspects of archival research. For example, chapters can be based on:
- comparative studies of practices
- surveys and interviews with scholars who do archival research
- reviews of previous research
- methodological guidelines, etc.
The book will be divided into sections that follow the process of doing archival research. The suggested sections and topics within them include, but are not limited to:
1. An introductory section
- general knowledge on archives: theory of archives, archives in other disciplines, legislation regarding archives, metadata and archival standards, different types of archives (institutional, private, digital, etc.)
- monolingual glossary of relevant concepts & terminology
- ethics of archival research: data protection and copyright issues, the politics of archives (e.g., gender bias, archival silences), researcher’s positionality, fragmentary/positional nature of archival records
2. Before visiting the archives
- assessing the need to use archival material in a particular study
- where to find information about archives and about the materials in those archives: finding aids, (specialist) catalogues, databases
- accessing the archives: permissions, travel, administrative hurdles
3. In the archives
- reading and interpreting archival metadata
- working with unorganized and fragmented materials
- practical “how to”, best practices: note-taking, photographing, labeling and coding the material, data management in large-scale projects, serendipity
- collaboration with colleagues, archivists, research assistants, information specialists, etc.
4. Analyzing the materials
- methods and methodologies: source criticism, microhistory, histoire croisée, prosopography, quantitative studies, network analysis, triangulation of evidence, additional materials (e.g., interviews), contextualization, etc.
- tools: text recognition software, network analysis software, database tools, etc.
- the role of affect and emotions: researchers’ experiences when encountering archival documents, expectations, potential disappointments, delight at discoveries, etc.
- materiality of archives: papers, born-digital and multimodal materials, etc.
- conducting collaborative and interdisciplinary research
5. Writing up archival research
- documenting the work process
- how to refer to archival materials (in the text and in the list of references)
* * *
For the chapters in this volume, authors are encouraged to, for example:
- address the same topic or question from several points of view (e.g., comparing the situation in different locations or when using different types of materials);
- co-author chapters with translation studies scholars, translators, archivists, historians, etc.;
- think creatively what kind of a text is best fit for the purpose of the chapter: a long paper, a bullet point list, a shorter sidebar text, etc.;
- use previous research and case studies as examples of how a certain type of research can be done, for example; and
- share best practices and personal experiences.
Please note that we are not looking to include in the book original research (such as case studies) in translation history where archival documents are used as research material; the focus here is on methodology.
In addition, we are planning to include in the volume an (annotated) bibliography of previous studies (in any language) that use archival material to study translation-related topics. You can suggest items (e.g., your own publications) for the bibliography by using this form, by adding them to the dedicated Zotero library* or by emailing suggestions to the editors.
Zotero library: https://www.zotero.org/groups/5386616/htn_wg_archives/library
Preliminary timeline:
31 July 2025: Deadline for submitting proposals
15 September 2025: Notification of acceptance/rejection of proposals
31 January 2026: Deadline for submitting full manuscripts
31 May 2026: Review comments to authors
31 July: Submission of final versions of articles
30 October 2026: Editors submit the revised manuscript to the publisher
Spring 2027: Estimated publication date of the book
The plan is to publish the book both in print and electronic format with a top-ranking publisher; we are looking into the options for making the book open access.
Please submit your proposals for chapters by the 31st of July, 2025 by using this form:
https://link.webropol.com/s/htn-archives-wg-book