Preserving Records Amidst Genocide
Perpetrators of genocide destroy people as well as their cultural legacies, including formal archives, libraries, privately held records, and culturally significant texts and other print objects. Colonial occupation both historically and currently consolidates power through destroying records of occupied peoples to deny their past, present, and future. Resistance, in turn, may take the form of preserving such records through smuggling, hiding, converting, memorizing, digitizing, translating, and reconstituting. Inspired by the Phoenix Library in Gaza, the MLA Forum on Book History, Print Cultures, Lexicography seeks papers on preserving books, print materials, and other textual records (broadly understood) in contexts of genocide. We particularly encourage submissions from individuals who are actively involved in preservation efforts. Send 250-word abstracts to Dr. Rebecca L. Schneider (rschneider@nmhu.edu) by March 20. The chosen papers will be invited to join a guaranteed panel at MLA 2027 (Jan 7-10) in Los Angeles.