The countdown to the International Archives Congress – ICA Barcelona 2025 has begun – and with it, the unveiling of the powerful ideas that will frame our conversations in Barcelona from 27–30 October 2025.
We have already introduced our keynote speakers and panel. Now, we are excited to share their titles and abstracts, giving participants a first look at the groundbreaking themes that will guide this year’s debates: from artificial intelligence and decoloniality to reparations, human rights, and the future of the archival profession.
Mercè Crosas
Tuesday, 28 October 2025 | 13:15 – 14:00
AI-Ready Archives: Understanding the past with the tools of the future
Much is discussed nowadays about the use of AI to transform most sectors and scientific domains. In particular, the application of specialized AI tools to historical archives has vast potential for their exploration, analysis, and innovative use. But what does it mean for an archive to be AI-ready? How do we apply the values of open science, including transparency and reusability, when preparing archives for new AI model systems? This talk will introduce concepts, best practices, and standards related to AI readiness, enabling us to prepare the world´s archives for interoperability, facilitate access to their data, and develop and share AI model systems and workflows to advance what we can learn from them.
Alan Cobley
Wednesday, 29 October 2025 | 11:00 – 11:45
Decoloniality, Reparations, Digitisation and AI: the new paradigms and new technologies shaping Caribbean Archives in the twenty-first century
Colonialism and imperialism profoundly shaped record keeping in the Caribbean, whilst simultaneously attempting to obliterate indigenous forms. This talk considers the resulting challenges that Caribbean Archives and Archivists confront today, using the concept of decoloniality. It argues that decolonial thinking for Archivists goes beyond the act of reinterpretation of records from the colonial era: it involves revalorizing indigenous forms of record keeping and exploring new approaches that can capture previously devalued aspects of Caribbean memory. This talk also discusses ‘Reparations’ and the role they could play in ensuring the survival and future development of vulnerable Caribbean Archives. Finally, the talk considers both the potential dangers and the possible benefits of the new technologies of digitization and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI). How can they be used to support the ‘decolonial turn’ in Caribbean archives both to empower Caribbean people and to document contemporary Caribbean societies in all their richness and variety?
Trudy Huskamp Peterson
Thursday, 30 October 2025 | 10:45 – 11:30
Hope as a Discipline: Archives and Human Rights
The times are dark: war, pestilence, floods and famine. Truly, the world seems to be sliding into catastrophe.
However: I argue that the archival profession is based on hope. We hope for the sustained significance of the archival profession and its associations; we hope for the allocation of resources that allow archival institutions and archivists to flourish; and, most of all, we hope that we are acquiring and preserving materials that will be used and useful in the future. Hope in this latter sense is a political hope: that we are wise enough to save the materials (from all sources, of all kinds) that will allow people, now and in the future, to preserve and protect their human rights. We want to live in just societies, and archives play a key role in sustaining justice.
Keynote Panel
Thursday, 30 October 2025 | 14:45 – 16:15
Archival Futures: Archives and Archivists for the next Quarter Century
Panellists:
- Emma de Ramon Acevedo, former President of ALA, Association of Latin American Archivists, ICA’s Regional Branch
- Francesc Giménez Martín, President of the Professional Association of Archivists and Records Managers of Catalonia
- Estelle Obe, President of the Archivistes Leaders Association
These keynotes and panel will challenge us to rethink how archives can embrace technology, confront historical legacies, defend human rights, and imagine bold futures for the profession.International Archives Congress – ICA Barcelona 2025 is not only a Congress – it is a global forum for ideas and action. Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of these conversations that will shape archives for the next quarter century.
