As colonial archives increasingly digitalise their collections, questions about their contents, descriptions, and context surface. Following the research question of ‘what do the current practices...Show moreAs colonial archives increasingly digitalise their collections, questions about their contents, descriptions, and context surface. Following the research question of ‘what do the current practices of colonial photographic archives tell us about how archival practices need to develop as archives begin to digitalise?’, this thesis explores colonial photography's archival processes and how digitalisation impacts them.Show less
This thesis discusses the presentation of indigenous Filipinos in exhibition photography of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. Rather than as passive participants to the American presentation of...Show moreThis thesis discusses the presentation of indigenous Filipinos in exhibition photography of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. Rather than as passive participants to the American presentation of benevolent assimilation, this study argues that photographs can be used to find instances of indigenous agency and that the indigenous Filipinos presented in them were active participants in the "event of photography." This is done through a 'watching' of photographic ensembles of the five major Filipino indigenous groups (Igorot, Moro, Visayan, Bagobo, Negrito), looking at how each group was presented in photographs with a single subject, the group interacting amongst themselves, and the group when interacting with Western technology and culture.Show less
The settling or, in fascist words, demographic policies Italy executed between 1935 and 1940 resulted in significant migratory flows to both Libya and East African domains: tens of thousands of...Show moreThe settling or, in fascist words, demographic policies Italy executed between 1935 and 1940 resulted in significant migratory flows to both Libya and East African domains: tens of thousands of farmers and manual labourers disembarked on colonial soil and got involved in one of the many plans the regime had devised to accommodate national low classes: farmsteads have been erected along Libya’s coastal region, construction sites have been opened in East Africa, where the regime promoted the building of roads connecting the main colonial centres. These projects were meant to be performed by national workforce and led to the formation of Italian settler communities some of which even managed to survive – at least for some years – the fall of the Italian empire. This paper aims at providing new insights on such societies and does so by means of a micro-historical examination of private accounts left by some of those settlers.Show less
