The Past Speaks

ESRC Seminar Series
Organizations and Society:
Historicising the theory and practice of organization analysis (Seminar 1)

Wednesday 18 March 2015
Aston Business School, Birmingham

Keynote: Professor Roy Suddaby, (University of Victoria & Newcastle Business School)
“The professionalization of the corporate archivist”
Guest Speakers
· Alistair McKinlay (Nottingham Business School)
· Maria Sienkiwicz (Barclays Bank, Group Archivist)
· Roundtable “The Theory & Practice of Archiving”, organized by Michael Anson (Business Archives Council and Bank of England) & Margaret Procter (Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies)

Call for Papers

We invite contributions that reflect the general theme of the seminar, how the past is managed in organizations, and how the theory and practice of archiving reflects the organizational engagement with the past. Potential themes include, but are not limited to:
· Archives as organizational memory?
· Managing organizational pasts – assets and dark secrets
· Safeguarding organizational heritage – the Wedgwood Collection & beyond
· Heritage, brands & national identities
· The professionalization of archivists and history managers
· Digital humanities and the organization

If you would like to present a paper at the seminar, please submit a 500-word abstract to s.decker@aston.ac.uk by 31 January 2015. Decisions will be communicated by 16 February 2015.
Registration is free. Lunch & refreshments will be provided. You can register without presenting a paper. Please contact m.podsiadly@aston.ac.uk to register.

Travel & accommodation should be covered by the participants. On campus accommodation is available; please see http://www.conferenceaston.co.uk/ for further information. Aston University is located in the city centre of Birmingham, within ten minutes’ walk from Birmingham New Street Train Station, Birmingham Snow Hill Station, and Birmingham Moor Street Station.

About the ESRC seminar series

The seminar series aims create a platform for European research on organizational analysis, heritage and reflective societies. All events revolve around three interlinked themes: archiving and archival research as resources for organizational analysis, organizational remembering as an alternative theoretical approach, and emerging methodologies that challenge organizational histories. For this series we have invited leading international scholars and invite new research through regular calls for papers. During these one day events there will be sufficient time to discuss ongoing research with leading scholars and journal editors from different disciplines. Several special issues are planned in relation to the themes of the seminar series.

For further enquiries please contact the organising team: Professor Stephanie Decker (Aston Business School), Professor Michael Rowlinson (Queen Mary University London), Professor John Hassard (Manchester Business School).