- 200 years
- Study
- International
- Business and employers
- Research
- About us
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I am an early career researcher specialising in the intersection between information, DIY culture (zines, music communities, grassroots spaces) and other forms of activism. Specifically I am interested in developing a better understanding about how information, archiving and documentary practices are utilised within grassroots cultural communities, and how socioeconomic circumstances affect the production and preservation of archival traces (including the impact of precarity, the housing crisis, austerity and technological shifts in culture).
My other research interests including community-led heritage, workforce diversity, workers' rights in information and heritage, affective models of archiving, representation of fatness in archives and media, queer histories and archives and participatory archival practice.
Prior to moving into academic research, I worked as an archivist in the UK heritage sector for over a decade. In this capacity I worked for organisations including the National Science and Media Museum, the UK Parliamentary Archives, Hoxton Hall and Screen Archive South East. I specialised in outreach and community engagement, and have taught on postgraduate archives management courses at University College London and University of Dundee.
Outside of my professional capacity I am active as a community organiser, zine maker and musician in DIY cultures. I also spend a lot of time walking my dog and growing things on my allotment.
I teach because I want to empower students to engage critically with issues that affect them in their daily lives, including experiences of work, society, relationships, technology and culture.
PhD (Information Studies), University College London (submission due 2021)
MA Archives and Records Management, University College London (2013)
MA Gender and Cultural Studies, University of Leeds (2009)
BA (hons) Photographic Arts, University of Westminster (2008)
2020-2021: Lecturer in Popular Music, Leeds Conservatoire
2019-2021: Postgraduate Teaching Associate, UCL
2019-2021: Tutor, University of Dundee
2016-2018: Project Curator of Library and Archives, National Science and Media Museum
2014-2016: Outreach Archivist, UK Parliamentary Archives
2013-2014: Archivist, Hoxton Hall
I teach on the following modules on our BSc Digital Media and Communications:
I teach on the following modules on our MA in Library and Information Management:
I am able to discuss working as a secondary supervisor on PhD projects that are relevant to my specialism.
K. Fife, H. Henthorn (2021). Brick Walls and Tick Boxes. The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion (IJIDI). 5(1), pp.6-32.
K. Fife (2019). Not for you? Ethical implications of archiving zines. Punk & Post Punk. 8(2), pp.227-242.
K. Fife, H. Henthorn (2021). Brick Walls and Tick Boxes. The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion (IJIDI). 5(1), pp.6-32.
A. Chilcott, K. Fife, J. Lowry, J. Moran, A. Oke, et al. A. Sexton, J. Thethi. (2021). Against Whitewashing. The International Journal of Information, Diversity, & Inclusion (IJIDI). 5(1), pp.33-59.
K. Fife (2019). Not for you? Ethical implications of archiving zines. Punk & Post Punk. 8(2), pp.227-242.
2021: “Presence, absence and deletion: Implications of digital memory work in UK DIY music” at Information Overload: Music Studies in the Age of Abundance at University of Birmingham
2021: "Breaking down brick walls: an open discussion of the needs of working class ECRs" at Working Class Academics conference (online)
2021: “The least we can do is put like a flag in the ground and say that we're here”: archival impulses in UK DIY music spaces” at KISMIF conference (online)
2021: Futuresex Witness: Archives, Museums and Spaces (Histories and Futures of Gender, Sex and Sexuality) at University of Surrey (panel participant)
2021 :“Digital Cultural Memory in UK DIY Music” at University of Oslo (invited presentation at the book launch of DIY Music and the Politics of Social Media)
2020: ““It's a very unstable society that we've built”: Precarity, Memory and History in UK DIY music spaces” at University of York (invited lecture)
2020: “Digital Digging: the work of social movements and activist archivists in documenting injustice” (presentation), co-presented with Andrew Flinn and Julianne Nyhan at Association of Critical Heritage Studies Conference (online)
2020: “Adventures in Academia: Demystifying Research and Building Working Class Solidarity Networks Through Zine Making” (presentation) at Working Class Academics (conference, online)
2019: “Document It Yourself: Heritage Work in UK-based DIY Music Spaces” (presentation) at Home of Metal: Music Heritage, People and Place, Birmingham City University
2019: “Collective Collecting and Documentation Practice in UK DIY Music Spaces” (presentation) at Archival Education and Research Institute Conference, University of Liverpool
2019: “Document It Yourself: Unauthorised Heritage Praxis in DIY Music Spaces” at Music and Sound Beyond Borders, Manchester Metropolitan University
2018: “Brick Walls and Tick Boxes: Experiences of Marginalised Workers in the UK Archive Sector” (presentation) at Archives and Records Association Conference, Glasgow
2018: “Not For You: Ethical Implications of Archiving Self-Publishing” (presentation) at Art Librarians Conference, Architectural Association, London
2017: “Challenge the Future: How Do We Want The Profession To Grow?” (presentation and panel participant) at Archives and Records Association Conference, Manchester
2017: “Decentring Qualification: A Radical Examination of Archival Employment Possibilities” (presentation) at Radical Collections, Senate House, London
2020-2021 Co-organiser, Recording it Ourselves: DIY Cultures and Archives, Information and Heritage (online conference)
2020-2021 Co-organiser, UK Archives and Records Management PhD Network
2020-2021 Coordinator, Basic Web Archiving for DIY Cultures and Activists workshops
2019 Co-organiser, White Supremacy in Archives network meetings
2019-2020 Co-convenor, Critical Archives and Records Reading Group
2018-2019: Student panel member, Archival Education and Research Institute conference
2016: LGBTQ ALMS conference steering group member
Peer reviewer for journals including Archives and Records, ZINES, Research in Education, Archivaria and the International Journal of Diversity, Inclusion and Information.
2021 UCL Wellbeing Student-Led Activities grant recipient
2019 Centre for Critical Heritage Studies Small Grants recipient
2019 University of Barnard Library Research Award recipient
2018 AHRC funding for PhD study at UCL
2013 AHRC block grant funding for MA study at UCL
2008 Leeds Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies Excellence Awards