PhD Researcher Amalia S. Levi opens the focus section with a critical note on archival research, stating that scholars must be aware of how digitization practices and dependencies influence both what historical material is accessible and how knowledge is produced today. Following on are articles by Klara Boyer-Rossol on recovering marginalized identities in Mauritius and France and by Sinah Kloß on identities in the Indo-Caribbean diaspora. Articles by Michael Zeuske (Caribbean and Latin America) and Lewis Doney (India Office Library, UK) examine how legal records and colonial archives uncover hidden networks of labor and knowledge. Luvena Kopp highlights how Jean Pfaelzer documents California’s long history of coerced labor by combining archival research with oral histories. Alexander Ermakov and Stephan Conermann explore how artificial intelligence is reshaping archival research.
In our field research section, Jutta Wimmler revisits the legacy of Scottish explorer Mungo Park, focusing on West Africa and the Scottish Borders. Contributions from Ghana (Philip Atta Mensah, Jonas Bens, Ebenezer Mensah Gyimah, Christian Mader) explore how the architecture of slave forts shapes memory and trauma, while Rapti Siriwardane-de Zoysa investigates Sri Lanka’s ghostly maritime infrastructures as spectral archives of global dependency.
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