Talk & Workshop - Contested Collections Series
February 28th, 2025
đź“ŤÂ CDRS (MN3233/3235), UTM
2PM-4PM
Register now: uoft.me/ufc
Event description
Join UTM Library archivist Christopher (Cal) Long for a hands-on exploration of a unique archival collection held by UTM Library.
In the early 1980s, anthropologist Phillipe Bourgois stumbled upon a cache of documents in an aging warehouse attic near the border of Costa Rica and Panama. Nearly two thousand pages which filled “four to five dozen unnumbered, mildewed, and rodent-eaten cardboard boxes”, documented almost a century of the United Fruit Company Ltd.’s management of its Latin American plantations. The papers document in vivid detail nearly a century of one of modern global capitalism’s most notorious multi-national corporations whose corruption, exploitation, and meddling in Latin American politics in collaboration with the U.S. government is well-known. Bourgois’s theft of these papers, which were slated for destruction by the Company, perhaps constitutes a “reverse looting” – through their theft, the history of the UFC’s plunder of Latin America can also be revealed. In this event, we will consider the implications of this unique archival story and discuss what it tells us about the nature of looting and the role archives can play in liberatory movements and counter-histories.
In-person attendance is highly encouraged for this hybrid event. PLEASE REGISTER at uoft.me/ufc.
Readings
The following text and digital exhibit are recommended to familiarize yourself with the collections and subject matter before the event.
- Bourgois, Phillipe. 2003. “One hundred years of United Fruit Company letters” in Striffler, Steve, and Mark Moberg. Banana Wars: Power, Production, and History in the Americas. Duke University Press.
- Digital Exhibit: Visualizing the Americas. https://visualizingtheamericas.utm.utoronto.ca/
And for those new to archival debates, this piece presents some of the ethical challenges surrounding colonial and imperial archives.
- Odumosu, Temi. “The Crying Child: On Colonial Archives, Digitization, and Ethics of Care in the Cultural Commons.” Current Anthropology 61, no. S22 (2020): S289–302.Â