Curating in the Crossfire: Collecting in the Time of War, Conflict and Crises

Day 1 – Monday, 3 November

(Refreshments and lunch for Day 1 included in the ticket price)

09.30 – 10.00: Refreshments

10.00 – 10.10: Welcome, introduction, and housekeeping

10.10 – 11.10: Keynote 

Dr Kristian Jensen

Cultural Property: A Context for Collecting Materials from Conflicts

11.15 – 12.45: Panel: Approaches to Collecting in the Time of Crisis

Moderator: Olga Topol

• Nicola Bingham (Web Archive, BL) – Challenges and Approaches in Web Archiving
• Charlie Morgan (Oral History, BL) – Crisis Oral History and the Challenges of Long-Term Archiving
• Richard Morel (Philatelic, BL) – Philately in Conflict: War, Social Resilience & Collecting Challenges

12.45 – 13.45: Lunch (provided for day 1)

13.45 – 16.15: Panel: Documenting Conflict – Case Studies from the Past

Moderator: Milan Grba

• Alison Bailey (Printed Heritage, BL) & Dr Ann-Marie Foster (Robert Gordon University) – Collecting Ephemera in the First World War
• Dr Liam Markey (University of Liverpool) – Mediating Militarism: Chronicling 100 Years of British “Military Victimhood”
• George Hay (CWGC) – Exporting Military Bureaucracy: The King’s African Rifles Records
• Dr Alex Kent (World Monuments Fund) – Coastal Connections: Reimagining Coastal Heritage Loss
• Gary Winter (Historic England) – What Remains: Collecting and Curating the National Buildings Record

16.15 – 16.30: Refreshments

16.30 – 18.30: Panel: Current Archiving and Engagement

Moderator: Richard Morel

• Dr Tamsin Silvey (Historic England) – Picturing Lockdown: Creating a Crowdsourced Photography Collection
• Beatrice Behlen & Thomas Ardill (London Museum) – Collecting Covid at the Museum of London
• Natalia Yemchenko (Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, Kyiv) – Collecting Human Stories During the War in Ukraine
• Daniel Lowe (AAS, BL) – Art of Resistance and Solidarity: Palestinian Posters at the British Library

Day 2 – Tuesday, 4 November

(Refreshments included, please make your own arrangements for lunch)

09.30 – 10.00: Welcome and refreshments

10.00 – 11.30: Panel: Archival Stories of War – Past and Present

 Moderator: Emma Harrison

• Han-Lin Hsieh & Yasuyo Ohtsuka (AAS, BL) – Misleading Sino-Japanese War Propaganda Prints
• Dr Olga Topol (European, BL) – Collecting Across the Curtain: Polish Materials at the BL During the Cold War
• Milan Grba (European, BL) – Documenting Turmoil: BL’s Curatorial Response to the Yugoslav Civil Wars

11.30 – 11.40: Short break

11.40 – 12.30: Panel: Archival Stories of War

Moderator: Katya Rogatchevskaia

• Pavlo Zhuravel’ (Centre for Studies of History and Culture of East European Jewry, Kyiv) – Jewish Community in the Russo-Ukrainian War (video talk)
• Sam van Schaik (EAP, BL) – The Endangered Archives Programme in Times of War: Ukraine, Sudan, Gaza

12.30 – 13.45: Lunch (please arrange your own lunch)

13.45 – 14.45: Items in Focus (Introductions)

Moderator: Olga Topol

• Daniel Wilkinson (BL) – Soviet Tourist Schemes and the Current Conflict in Ukraine
• Richard Berry (Forces Postal History Society) – Collecting Postal History of the Rhodesian Bush War (1964–1979)
• Dr Andrzej Suchcitz & Krzysztof Bożejewicz (Polish Underground Study Trust) – How the Polish Underground Movement Study Trust Archives came to be founded in London

14.45 – 16.00: Items in Focus (Display)

• Daniel Wilkinson, Richard Berry, Krzysztof Bożejewicz

Please note: No food or drinks are allowed in the display room. Bags, bottles, and food must be left in the designated area.