Archiving Loss, Learning, and Time in the Field

Abstract This reflective essay examines the nature and experience of time spent in the field. Through a reflection on the loss of a friend and colleague during the Covid-19 pandemic, this piece explores the experiential and socioemotional dimensions of conducting historical research and working in archival settings. A series of vignettes and photographs from approximately a decade of research trips to Buenos Aires, Argentina invite the reader to contemplate the nature of friendships born in the field and their critically supportive role in navigating the geography of career-long learning processes. In this narrative, the story of one such relationship serves as a backdrop to bigger questions of temporality, grief, and interconnection.