As an extension of our 2023 speaker series Reclaim The University, the studio collected material from student activists to create an archive of student protest highlighting moments through Canadian history when students fought back against the neoliberalism of the academy. The collection catalogue can be accessed through TMU Archives at (LINK)

This digital exhibition aims to both expand upon and subvert the institutional archive where, as Achille Mbembe argues in "The Power of the Archive," archival objects are rendered "dead." When objects enter the space of the archive, they no longer have a life of their own because their purpose within the archive is to help tell the story that the institution is trying to tell. This digital exhibition aims to explore how we can "bring the dead back to life, reintegrate them back in the cycle of time, and allow them to continue to express themselves."

While this digital exhibition aims to breathe life back into the archive, we operate with the understanding that it will always be in a state of perpetual (un)becoming. Rather than claiming to be an impossibly complete documentation of student protest, we hope this archive serves as a model that encourages future scholars to continue interrogating the institutional archive and explore alternative archival engagements in their work.