New Books Network Gabrielle Durepos and Amy Thurlow, "Archival Research in Historical Organisation Studies: Theorising Silences" (Emerald Publishing, 2025)
Sep 18, 2025
Gabrielle Durepos, an Associate Professor focused on historical organization studies, and Amy Thurlow, a Communication Studies Professor specializing in critical sensemaking, explore the hidden narratives in archival research. They discuss how business archives have overlooked marginalized voices, using examples like Pan Am and railways to illustrate the impact of archival silences. The duo proposes a robust research agenda emphasizing reflexivity, aesthetics, and intersectionality to reshape how organizational histories are studied and taught for a more inclusive future.
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Archives Shape Knowledge Production
- Archives shape what knowledge researchers can produce by preserving some voices and excluding others.
- Gabrielle Durepos notes archives are imperfect mirrors of society and thus bias historical narratives.
Pan Am Newsletters Reveal Gender Roles
- At the Pan Am archive, internal newsletters pictured women as beauty icons while men were shown as technical experts.
- Gabrielle Durepos used these images to show how repeated depictions construct gendered roles in organizations.
Silences Grow From Everyday Choices
- Silences in archives arise from many small, often mundane decisions over time, not just deliberate deletion.
- Gabby explains cultural logics and constraints like space, budget, and past practices drive what gets preserved.
