2026 ALISE Annual Conference

This poster provides a working definition of the “hierarchive,” which we characterize in an attempt to name the barriers faced by oppressed individuals in accessing critical information about themselves via institutional and personal archives. We argue that hierarchival stewards restrict information access from people who need it most because accessing the information within the hierarchive disrupts the oppressive power the hierarchive holds. We present two case sites where the hierarchive and information precarity may collide. We conclude by offering suggestions to circumvent and dismantle the hierarchive that build on the defensive and subversive information practices suggested by Vásquez & Oltmann (2023).