Dataset for "Reassembling the Prisons Memory Archive: A Bricolage practice-led approach to archival education through collaborative curation"

This dataset originates from a PhD research project investigating the impact of creative archival outreach interventions that re-use materials from the Prisons Memory Archive through collaborative curation practices. The project explored how participatory engagement with archival material can influence participants’ perceptions of archives, archival work, and the processes of interpretation and curation.

As part of the research, a series of creative workshops was organised in which participants collaboratively engaged with audiovisual material from the Prisons Memory Archive and digitised paper-based records from the Public Record Office Northern Ireland. During these workshops, participants worked with and interpreted archival material, reflecting on its meanings, context, and potential forms of presentation.

To capture participants’ experiences and reflections, group (or joint) interviews were conducted with workshop participants. These interviews focused on participants’ curatorial choices during the workshops, their experiences of working with archival material, and the perceived impact of participation on their understanding of archives and archival practices.

This dataset contains extended anonymised quotations extracted from the recorded and afterwards transcripted interviews with workshop participants. The transcripts were edited only where necessary for readability: repetitions and filler words were removed (indicated by parentheses), relevant archival references were added in square brackets, and all personal information has been anonymised or excluded. The quotes were selected during the analysis phase to illustrate key themes related to curatorial strategies and participants’ perceptions of archival work.

The dataset is intended to support transparency in qualitative research and to provide illustrative material that underpins the interpretations and findings presented in the associated doctoral research.