In her book The Network Inside Out (2000) and her edited volume Documents (2006), anthropologist Annalise Riles introduces a theoretical approach to the aesthetics of institutional artefacts and underscores the important contribution that documents make to the understanding of transnational phenomena. As educational transplants are becoming commonplace, institutional accountability comprises an important cornerstone of contract negotiations. Marilyn Strathern (2000a; 2000b) also writes about the emergence of audit cultures within academia. Universities are implementing this global tool and are being structured in ways that make them “auditable” (e.g. mission statements, research and teaching assessments) and therefore more accountable. The audit process involves continuous performance and quality assessment and requires evidence of the realization of goals. Yet this concept of archiving was conspicuously absent during the period of my doctoral research in Education City in Qatar from 2006-2008. From the Msheireb Project to the British Library Qatar Foundation Partnership geared to digitize archival and manuscript material related to the Gulf, there is a flurry of archival activity currently underway in Qatar. This phenomenon, however, is relatively recent coinciding with the nation’s efforts to transition itself into a knowledge-based economy. The National Archive, the National Library, and the new National Museum - all of which are currently under construction - reflect the urgency and the importance of connecting Qatar to a tangible and documented historic narrative, formerly encapsulated in an oral tradition. The paper will explore the absence and presence of archival documents in Qatari organizations with a particular focus on the institutional artifacts associated with the conception and construction of Education City and its transnational branch campuses. In particular it will examine precedents (or lack of?), the motivations, competing legitimacies and the challenges encountered in the establishment of an archival culture in Qatar. Yet, whose narratives are being put forth and whose perspectives are silenced in this process?