Photo by Anna Auza on Unsplash
Making and Unmaking Archival Methods
by
Cris van Eijk | 4 February 2026
Photo by Anna Auza on Unsplash
In this episode of Talking about Methods, Professor Linda Mulcahy talks to Cris van Eijk about making and unmaking archival methods. Cris reflects on critical ways of engaging with “present moments locked into paper form, divorced from reality through the act of printing or writing”. The speaker highlights the labour of archivists and the need to discuss the actual everyday work and affective strains of archival research.
Readings recommended by Cris van Eijk
- Caswell, M. (2023) ‘“The Archive” Is Not an Archives: Acknowledging the Intellectual Contributions of Archival Studies’, in Prescott, A. and Wiggins, A. (eds) Archives: Power, Truth, and Fiction. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7bn4v1fk.
- Land, I. (2024) ‘Planning for Success in the Archives’, in The Craft of Historical Research: A Practical Guide from Start to Finish. Springer. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-68457-9_6
- Veličković, M. (2023) ‘Ethical Challenges of Using Trial Transcripts for Research Purposes: A Case Study of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia’, London Review of International Law 381 Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/lril/lrad020.(NB: This text includes a clearly indicated content warning for discussion of sexual violence and rape from pp. 391-396)
- Orazem, K. (2020) ‘Fever Dreams’, Acid Free, 12. Available at: http://laacollective.org/work/fever-dreams.
Work by Cris van Eijk
- Van Eijk, C. (2024) ‘Uncloseting Travaux’, in O’Hara, C. and Paige, T.P. (eds) Queer Engagements with International Law: Times, Spaces, Imaginings. Routledge. Available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4719161.
About the Speaker
Cris van Eijk
Cris van Eijk is a third year PhD candidate at Newcastle Law School. His research questions what it means to make outer space ‘common’, and how international law attempts to do so. He holds a BA and LLM in Public International Law from Leiden University, and a BA in Law from the University of Cambridge.