Trans Archiving Network (TAN)

Trans Archiving Network (TAN) will bring together (non-)academic experts in the fields of trans studies, activism and archiving to develop knowledge on the collection of oral histories through an intersectionality lens. It will generate ongoing (inter)national working relationships and two research funding applications, one of which will be to create the first trans digital archive in the East Midlands area in the UK. Working with Notts Trans Hub and (inter)national experts in trans lives archiving, the resulting Trans Lives East Mids project will create a narrative of trans community lives in the region. The learning from the TAN will help develop two clear research agendas, the first being to explore the autobiographical experiences of trans people in the East Midlands, the second applying an intersectional lens comparing trans lives in the UK's devolved nations. It will bring together research teams, made up of academics and trans co-contributors, to facilitate learning, research skill capacity building and how to create and disseminate archives. The funds will enable a series of 6 workshops with the aims of: developing a research trajectory for the two future projects working to create and analyse trans archives, including plans to apply for follow-on funding; interpreting how concepts of race, ethnicity, sexuality, (dis)ability, age and class relate to trans experiences; identifying the challenges of undertaking co-created oral history research in an ethical way that acknowledges and mitigates the oppression participants may have experienced; identifying and overcoming the technical and practical challenges of gathering a digital archive of diverse trans voices and develop ways that enhance accessibility; collaborating in the workshops with activists and practitioners in the third sector to develop relationships and a deeper understanding of the utility of a trans archive for their professional practice.
The workshops: 1, Intersectionality: will explore how multiple oppressions around trans, class, race, ethnicity, (dis)ability, geography intersect. We will share knowledge about how to attract people from a diverse range of backgrounds in order to develop the co-production methodologies for the research funding bids. We will consider accessibility needs and generate a consensus on how intersectionality theory and its application will be fostered throughout the archive project and within the research funding bids. 2, Co-Production: will investigate the benefits and challenges of using co-production as a research method, provide the time to learn each other's language so that genuine collaboration between researchers, stakeholders and co-partners is possible, and develop a protocol for auditing the skills and roles that partners hold and would like to utilize. 3, Ethics: will develop an agreement upon how language, trans diversity and inclusion, accuracy of representation, informed consent that is meaningful, and potential harms will be addressed in the archive and within the research bids. We will understand how the protection of contributor and third-party confidentiality can be maintained through time and the practicalities of the ethics of storing data, descriptors, search terms and indexing archives. 4, Practicalities of Archiving: will co-create a theory and practice of trans and non-binary archiving based on the expertise of presenters and bring together those who have experience of creating archives with those who intend to work on the Trans Lives East Midlands's archive to exchange experience, knowledge and offer how to plan how the archive will be created, stored, accessed, and added to in the future. 5, Third-sector: will bring together professionals and members of the trans communities to develop understandings about how oral histories can inform and be utilized by them. 6, Consolidation event: will assess the knowledge, outcomes and findings from the previous meetings to frame the future plans/bid