Threads
Felt Notes
It’s the end of June—and this month’s Felt Notes are a set of quieter threads [1] on archives and questions of historical justice in my ongoing queer- and trans-feminist DH scholarship. By bridging temporalities, including critiques and markings of pride*; furthering community connections and inquiries into archival futures;** participating in the programming of international archives week;*** and reading, writing, mentoring, and preparing for next month’s academic-public engagements,**** I was able to own and act upon all that this precious summertime has to offer.
Embracing all heightened engagements with a local queer-trans archive as we collectively and uniquely continue to build and support it in our varied capacities. That these entanglements have their own specificities make the question of how and why we came to do this work equally alive and brilliant.
—June 8, 2025 at 7:25 PM
Looking forward to meeting Pawan this afternoon. We met two years ago in Kolkata at the screening of “A Home for My Heart,” a documentary on Sudeb Suvana’s life.* And whilst Pawan’s tremendous work leading Varta remains an important connection, I remain equally excited about our shared worlds with QAMRA.**
—June 11, 2025 at 2:47 PM
An India Foundation for the Arts archival tour found a more intimate home + iteration in the convo w/ Pawan that followed; the worlds of queer-trans archiving may feel distinct from these infrastructures, given our q’s + precarities, but also comparable considering another set of q’s + urgencies.***
—June 11, 2025 at 7:41 PM
And the week ends w/ my first fuller meeting w/ other members of the queer archive advisory group, learning about multi-site informations; thinking about local archival representation and labour; and reflecting w/ Pawan about what memory work might entail when lives are increasingly made fragile.**
—June 13, 2025 at 8:29 PM
What does it mean for the cataloging process to be in formation, particularly as it involves and is co-created with trans folx? Today’s meeting with my namesake, a doctoral researcher currently housed at the archive, was all things pertinent to this question and more.****
—June 18, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Marking the solstice by reviewing an archive's material inventory; furthering on-ground relations in support of fundraising; giving form to a related research collaboratory; adding to graduate thesis advising notes; and making space for new writing on queer- and trans-feminist DH scholarship.****
—June 21, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Looking forward to tonight's film screening at BIC and onward to welcoming Susan Potter to the city as we get ready to facilitate a queer archival reading workshop at the national law school later this week. This month's felt notes will be these threaded postings of quieter and continuous work.****
—June 29, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Notes
[1] These threads are from my postings on a microblogging site where the use of the adjective “quieter” is also one of sensing the boundaries I set for deliberate care work in community and as solitude.
About
Felt Notes are monthly dispatches about the work of the Just Futures Co-lab, and the co-labouring worlds of research and teaching in art, design, and the digital humanities that it scaffolds, furthers, and amplifies. The letter writing translates the ever so negotiated nature of this space at Srishti Manipal Institute and the discourse and scholarship on equity and justice I produce with students and wider academic and non-academic community members through critical pedagogy; archival and database constructions; interactive digital storytelling; and inquiries into queer- and trans-feminist media technologies and infrastructures.
I hope reading this letter and its upcoming segments are a meaningful experience for you. If you aren’t subscribed yet, you may do so here. If you are already subscribed, I would love for you to share the link with friends and trusted networks as we make sense of our relationships to technology as well as our relationships to each other via technology. If you would like to write or co-write a letter in the future or share any announcements, please feel free to get in touch with me, and whilst you’re here, please also check out the Felt Notes Archive.
Kush Patel