Homecoming

A Quick Catch-up 3 months, 12 drawers, over 5000 photographic cards – this was the UCT Collection that I assessed between June and August 2019. Only a short month later I was on a plane to Manchester, to begin my PhD at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM). Here I …

Surveying

The Literature Review. That is how every PhD (both good and bad) begins. Apparently what it takes is sifting through copious amounts of books and articles – some in physical form, most as digital documents, some legally obtained, others less so. Highlighting, taking notes, writing summaries… all to find that a day’s work will only …

Intermission

Access Granted This is a celebratory pause from the assessment process. I had planned on doing so much in terms of practically engaging the collection, but sometimes certain plans fall away to make space or other necessary activities. In this case: admin. I had hoped that after being granted admission to the PLC (on paper) …

In the Beginning…

Reading and Rambling The project is daunting. I’m no archivist, I’m no ethnographer. Yet here I am archiving, making notes, and doing this self-indulgent thing of recording everything I do – or, at least, what I will be doing. For the moment, the uncertainty means burying myself in literature. Photographic theory, archival organisation, anthropological methods,… …