IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Name: Hearing Udi Voices: The New Online Edition of the Austrian Phonogrammarchiv as Infrastructure for Vulnerable Sonic Memory
Start: 2026-10-22T16:00:00+0300
End: 2026-10-22T17:00:00+0300

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Hearing Udi Voices: The New Online Edition of the Austrian Phonogrammarchiv as Infrastructure for Vulnerable Sonic Memory

Thursday October 22, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm EEST

Events hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania: Great Hall

In its 1899 founding document, the Phonogrammarchiv (Austrian Academy of Sciences) was conceived with imperial ambition: to document all languages and dialects of Europe—and then the world. In the following decades, researchers and missionaries equipped with the Archive‑Phonograph contributed to this project. Many people were recorded under conditions of violence—under colonial rule, or as prisoners-of-war during WWI—while others later experienced displacement or minoritisation, as imperial, colonial, or national ideologies prevailed, as in several of Adolf Dirr’s Recordings from the Caucasus (1909–1910).

This paper presents the new online version of the Phonogrammarchiv’s ongoing Edition Series, The Complete Historical Collections (1899–1950), focusing on its first edition mentioned above. This publication provides open streaming, interactive transcriptions, and downloads for study and sharing, while discussing the context of production. We address collaborative editing, open access, and accessibility for descendant communities and communities of practice, critically engaging with online publication amid uncertain digital futures and global inequalities.

The second part turns to the earliest known audio recordings of the Udi language, made by Dirr. Situating the recordings within the Udi community’s history—marked by repeated displacement and persecution, including upheavals shortly after the recordings—we highlight the fragility of minority archives in times of political crises. Currently, the audio recordings, photographs and related materials are being prepared for presentation in Zinobiani, the only Udi village in Georgia, highlighting the significance of these discoveries for small communities. Finally, we discuss the ethics and politics of recirculation, on and offline, and argue for the vital role of linguistic documentation as part of community memory and identity.

Speakers

Conny Gruber

Academy Scientist, Phonogrammarchiv (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Conny Gruber is an ethnomusicologist at the Phonogrammarchiv, Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, responsible for publications and editions. They earned their doctorate at the University of Vienna on the interdependency of gender within dance spaces in southwest Madagascar. Gruber’s... Read More →

Alexander Kavtaradze

Invited Lecturer, Ilia State University (Tbilisi, Georgia)

Alexander Kavtaradze, based in Tbilisi (Georgia), holds a DPhil/PhD in Cultural Studies on the topic, “On the edge of time, space and memory: The Udis of Georgia and Azerbaijan”. His research focuses on the Udis and their historic homeland, Caucasian Albania. He serves as an invited... Read More →

Thursday October 22, 2026 4:00pm - 5:00pm EEST
Events hall: Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania: Great Hall

Long Presentation, In Person

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IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Conny Gruber

Alexander Kavtaradze

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IASA-BAAC 2026 Conference

Conny Gruber

Alexander Kavtaradze

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