The relationship of the historians to archives and sources is unique. It has been the subject of descriptions that have become classics, such as Arlette Farge's Goût de l'archive (The Allure of the Archives, 2013, 1st ed. 1989), but also of reflections on the relationship to "new sources'', and notably digital ones (Müller and Clavert, ed., 2017).
Do the historians gathered in the Tensions of Europe network have a particular relationship to archives, to sources, and to their research material more generally? What does being a historian of technologies, infrastructures, or networks imply and is there a singularity with regards to sources and archives? It is this relationship to the archives, to the sources, to the historical material at large, to the spatialities and materialities as well, that this conference invites us to question. It aims to bring together the members of the ToE network around the question of “Surprising sources”. This issue can be understood in two ways: it is a matter of presenting and thinking about a source that is surprising in its form (use of a series of stamps, of unpublished data, of a natively digital archive, of material traces - abandoned factory, pipes, etc.) or in its content (an unexpected discovery at the turn of a source that moves, surprises, modifies the meaning of the research, gives it flesh, etc.).
We invite historians who recognize themselves in the central themes of Tensions of Europe to discuss their sources, to put them in perspective and to surprise us. Interventions will be 15 minutes long and the day will leave plenty of room for discussion and exchange. Proposals (500 words max) and short biographies are welcome until March 15, 2023 and to be sent at valerie.schafer@uni.lu. We hope to see many of you at this event, which will be dedicated to the core of our approaches and activities.
