Gatherings Partnership Archive Salon

Gatherings—Archival and Oral Histories of Performance
The Performing Archives Cluster is thrilled to invite you to our first Archive Salon! Please join us virtually on Monday, November 23rd from 1:00pm to 2:30pm EST for a conversation with Nishi Bassi (Bata Shoe Museum) and Raegan Swanson (ArQuives). This informal salon series will be an opportunity to discuss all things archiving, from animating archives to the ethics of public sharing!

About our presenters:

Nishi Bassi
Nishi Bassi is the Curator and Manager of Exhibitions at the Bata Shoe Museum, where she has worked for over 10 years. With an academic background in British history, her current research explores footwear and fashion through the lens of consumer culture, post-colonialism, and gender. Her distinct lens shapes her perspective on how footwear is a deeply meaningful reflection of identity, status, and contemporary society. She curated her first solo exhibition in 2023 titled Dressed To Impress: Footwear and Consumerism In The 1980s and presented Andre Perugia: a Design Legend Unveiled in 2025. A committed EDI advocate, Nishi leads the BSM Diversity committee to ensure that accessibility is a core priority across the Museum’s practices, projects, and programming. In addition to publishing numerous articles, Nishi has authored one book and is currently working on her second, to be released in 2027. She has been a guest lecturer and speaker for multiple engagements across Canada and the UK, and also serves on the Board of Directors for ICOM Canada, where she supports the global advancement of the professional museum community.

Raegan Swanson
Raegan has been the Executive Director of The ArQuives since 2016. She holds a BA from Collège universitaire de Saint-Boniface and a Masters of Information from the University of Toronto iSchool, and a PhD in Archives and Records Management from the University of Dundee. She has worked as an archivist at Library and Archives Canada, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Aanischaaukamikw Cree Cultural Institute and as the Archival Advisor for the Council of Archives New Brunswick. She was a member of the Steering Committee on Canada’s Archives Taskforce to respond to the “Calls to Action” Report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Martha Currie (martha.currie@queensu.ca).