Please mark this in your calendars and plan for a trip to Kingston for a conference (and a swim in the lake!) hosted by the Vulnerable Media Lab.
Under the Shadow of the Empire: Minor Archives and Distribution Networks will gather researchers, media archivists/preservationists, curators/programmers, and filmmakers from across the Americas to address critical and urgent questions about and propose solutions to the rapid deterioration of media heritage. For five days, we will meet at Queen’s University for public dialogues, workshops, and screenings to address how the climate crisis, dictatorships, struggles for sovereignty, forced migration, and economic inequities produce extreme precarity for audio-visual heritage. We offer series of curated conversations around specific problems, workshops toward solutions, and screenings with the artists present.
Unlike most academic conferences, this gathering does not require proposals nor is it intended only for academics. We encourage professional archivists, community-based memory workers, curators, students, researchers, and preservationists/conservators to attend and participate. The workshops are intended as knowledge exchanges, modeled on APEX (Audiovisual Preservation Exchange).
All are welcome to register for any of the workshops, attend all of the curated conversations and screenings. Lunches and coffee/tea will be provided. We will have a reception/party on Friday, August 28th.
The conference is hosted by the Vulnerable Media Lab and is organized by Susan Lord, produced by Isabella Altoé, and supported by the conference advisory committee, Juana Suarez, Amalia Cordova, Gabriel Menotti, Tamara Lang, Zaira Zarza and Lesley Foster.
Funded by the SSHRC Connections program.
Date: August 26-30
Where: Vulnerable Media Lab, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario – Canada.
Registration will open the week of May 4th via vulnerablemedialab.ca
*note: the registration will offer sliding scales for the full conference or daily rates.
Email: usem2026@gmail.com