Can We Archive Memories? Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp and Beyond

The organisers of the Greenham Women Everywhere project discuss the issues around archiving memories of protest with LSE archivists.

“Greenham Women Everywhere” is a project to interview the women who formed the Greenham Common Peace Camp, which was established to protest nuclear weapons being placed at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire, between 1981 – 2000. The oral history collated will be presented in a specially designed website, a nationwide exhibition, and will have a permanent home at The Women’s Library at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

This special panel event will include a discussion from the organisers of the Greenham Women Everywhere project alongside LSE Library archivists, where we will explore some of the issues around archiving memories such as those of Greenham Common and beyond. The event will be chaired by Distinguished Policy Fellow Dr Louise Arimatsu, from the LSE’s Centre for Women, Peace and Security.

This event is part of “Visions of Feminist Peace”, a virtual programme exploring feminist peace, as part of the Feminist International Law of Peace and Security project. The event is co-hosted by the LSE Centre for Women, Peace and Security as part of the AHRC project Feminist International Law of Peace and Security.

Silvia Gallotti is a qualified Archivist with extensive experience of archiving memories, working in higher education, and in the private and public sector. She worked for five years at the British Library where she catalogued the papers of P.G. Woodhouse and Sir Michael Palin, among others. Prior to that she worked at LSE Archives where she took part in a workshop using the CND archives, and presented the results of her master’s dissertation on community archives at the GLF 40th anniversary conference. She is now back at LSE Archives where she manages born-digital archives.

Kate Kerrow is a writer and researcher with a particular interest in women’s history. Kate founded The Heroine Collective in 2015, an online publication with monthly content dedicated to championing the stories of women’s vast and forgotten contribution to varied industries and artistic movements. She read English at university and has a Masters in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths. She works as a professional playwright, specialising in adaptation. Her first novel won the Pat Kavanagh Award in 2018, and she received The Jerwood Charitable Foundation playwright’s award in 2011. Kate has worked as a teacher and sessional lecturer in schools, colleges and universities in the UK, Africa and America. In 2019, Kate co-founded the Greenham Women Everywhere archive with Scary Little Girls, under the funding of The Heritage Lottery Fund, and is currently working on a book commission which further disseminates the Greenham Women’s stories. Kate has been a feminist activist since her twenties, working on Reclaim The Night and events associated with Feminism in London.

Rebecca Mordan is an Artistic Director and founded Scary Little Girls in 2002 after graduating from Bristol Old Vic & working in film, theatre & TV. Disillusioned by the dearth of roles & opportunities for women, Rebecca created her own company to try to 'level the playing field, populate stories with fascinating, diverse female characters & generally rescue awesome women from the dustbin of history!' As well as taking SLG from strength to strength, Rebecca has developed a personal CV that includes writing (Dracula & The Full Bronte, national tours; Before I Wake, Minack 2018), directing (In the Footsteps of the Mitfords, Theatre Chipping Norton; A Very Peculiar Theatre & Women & War, Being Human festival; The Emperor's Lost Gems, Nutkhut), producing (The Ladies Cage, Manchester Royal Exchange Studio; The Riot Showgrrrls Club, Gilded Balloon & national tour) & performing (a lot, everywhere!). She co-created Greenham Women Everywhere with The Heroine Collective with funding from Heritage Lottery Fund & Arts Council England. SRebecca is also a regular talking head for feminism, politics & the arts on BBC radio & Sky News and has appeared on a variety of other media inc The Big Questions, Women’s Hour, Standard Issue podcast and Abandoned Engineering.

Emma Pizarro works in Archives and Special Collections at the LSE Library. She qualified as an archivist in 2019 and has an interest in the role of the archivist in shaping collective memory and identity, archival silences, and decolonising archival practice. Her recent cataloguing work has included the papers of suffragist and feminist Alice Abadam, and records of the Women’s Council and the National Federation of Women’s Institutes.

Dr Louise Arimatsu is Distinguished Policy Fellow in the Centre for Women, Peace and Security (LSE).

Event held on Thursday 17 September 2020 3:30pm to 4:30pm