Grassroots Queer Archiving in the Balkans

Based on a conversation with activists and archivists Jelena Vasiljević (Arkadija Archive, Serbia) and Safira Boeder (HomeSpace Arkivi Queer Shqiptar, Albania), the article examines how grassroots queer archives in the Balkans preserve and reassemble traces of queer life through volunteer labor, oral histories, and emerging regional collaboration networks. It explores tensions between organisations and communities, the contradictions produced by visibility, and the epistemological challenges of translating queer categories and lived experiences across different languages, histories, knowledge systems, and political contexts.