Seeking Justice under Archival Erasure

This project explores the role of records, recordkeeping and archiving in the legal arguments of Cobell v Salazar — a largest class-action lawsuit in the U.S. history. Through close reading and critical discourse analysis of deposition statements, Congressional hearings, witness statements, and legal opinions in this case, it traces the summoning of financial records as evidence of government’s performance of its duties and as evidence of its failure to do so. The findings lead to a formulation of several propositions on the co-evolution of governing, record-keeping, and the struggle for social justice.