Unilever’s Archives & Records Management (UARM) have partnered with The University of Essex to co-design a bespoke 6-month part-time research project to explore the scope of potential for their archival holdings related to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (ED&I). The project is based at Unilever’s Archives in Port Sunlight, with distanced interdisciplinary supervision from academics across two Departments, led by the Department of History.
The project was established to address the knowledge gap within archival practice to issues of ED&I, including how and where marginalised histories are represented within their collections. Records relating to race and ethnicity have been identified as particular areas for which working archival knowledge could be improved, and potential research and other activities supported. Through a cross-collection scoping survey of Unilever’s archival holdings, the project will map the existing collections for relevant material and produce guidance and recommendations on, but not limited to, acquisition, documentation, and utilisation of these records – steeped in historically contextual research about the records identified, as well as research into industry best practice examples and case studies.
By exploring the archive, we can learn more about not just these records themselves, but what stories they may be used to tell, what absences there are, how and how accessibly this information is documented, and what potential they might hold for future projects.
The work has been generously supported by the University of Essex Innovation fund.