Buried Voices — Reclaiming Egyptian counter-narratives from the bilingual archive of Giza’s HU-MFA excavations : A reparative interactive storytelling approach to colonial-era Archives in digital heritage projects

Sammanfattning

Introduction. This thesis examines how digital tools can support reparative historiography within digital heritage projects engaging with colonial archives. It focuses on how interactive digital storytelling can highlight Egyptians’ contributions to the HU–MFA Giza excavations and challenge long-standing Western-centred narratives. Methods. This thesis combined Postcolonial Critical Realism (PCR) and Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as a theoretical framework to develop a proof- of-concept (POC) of a digital interactive narrative integrated within the Harvard Camp digital heritage project. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with key stakeholders. The transcripts, along with documentation of the design process, formed the primary data sources for analysis. Analysis. Qualitative analyses, framed through a PCR and ANT lens, were conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the POC in promoting a reparative narrative of the HU-MFA archive. Results. Results indicate that interactive digital storytelling can challenge the perceived neutrality of colonial archives. By transforming static records into dynamic narratives, it shifts users from passive observers to co-authors of historical knowledge, promoting more flexible and inclusive representations of labour, authorship, and expertise in Egyptian archaeology. Conclusion. Beyond Egyptology, this thesis proposes a flexible model for engaging with colonial archives in the context of digital heritage by positioning interactivity as a historiographical approach.