Roundtable: Centering Black Stories in Archives
Roundtable: Centering Black Stories in Archives
African American history is American history, and the Black experience, from the local community level to the African Diaspora, belongs at the center. Examining the experiences of Black people, their literature, and the many other methods of cultural expression, archivists and scholars are exploring new techniques to collect, document, and understand their stories. Some narratives are embedded in the archive, but hidden, while others remain outside the archive. Whether generated in the digital humanities or the history of local communities, records of these experiences need to be gathered, cataloged, archived, and shared for now and the future. Roundtable participants are pioneering new ways of documenting the African American experience and giving it its rightful place in the archive. The presenters' perspectives are at the core of teaching anti-racist ideologies and shedding light on anti-Black racist practices. Please join us for an exploration of history and archiving practices that matter.
Introductory remarks made by Adriene Lim, Dean of Libraries; Professor of the Practice, College of Information Studies, University of Maryland.
Panelists:
Aleia Brown, Assistant Director African American History, Culture and Digital Humanities (AADHum) Initiative, University of Maryland
Joni Floyd, Curator, Maryland & Historical Collections, University of Maryland
Lae’l Hughes-Watkins, University Archivist, University of Maryland
Zita Nunes, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Maryland
Moderators, Tahirah Akbar-Williams, Education and African American Studies Librarian and Doug McElrath Director, Special Collections & University Archives.
Panelists Bios
Aleia M. Brown
Assistant Director
African American History, Culture and Digital Humanities (AADHum) Initiative University of Maryland, College Park
Aleia Brown is a public historian, curator, writer, and freedom seeker. At the University of Maryland, College Park, she serves as the Assistant Director of the African American History, Culture and Digital Humanities (AADHum) Initiative where she co-directs the Restorative Justice Project and leads research, teaching, and programmatic initiatives. She was the recipient of the 2017 Mellon-American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) public fellowship and served as program manager at the Humanities Action Lab at Rutgers University-Newark where she launched Climates of Inequality: Stories of Environmental Justice. She is the co-curator for Ubuntutu: Life Legacies of Love and Action and co-author of the exhibition catalog by the same name. Her current manuscript in progress reckons with the mishandling of Black women’s textile art and illuminates the sophisticated ways that makers have visualized Black political thought. She holds a PhD in Public History from Middle Tennessee State University
Joni Floyd
Curator, Maryland and Historical Collections
Special Collections and University Archives
University of Maryland Libraries
Joni Floyd is responsible for building, interpreting, and providing access to over 300 archival and manuscript holdings, which span the history and culture of the State of Maryland. Her scholarly service to critical archival studies includes community archives advocacy, trust-building and trauma-informed archival practices, and new approaches to participatory collecting. Prior to returning to academia, Dr. Floyd worked in community-based museums and public libraries; she continues to volunteer for neighborhood revitalization organizations.
Lae’l Hughes-Watkins
University Archivist
Special Collections and University Archives
University of Maryland Libraries
Lae’l Hughes-Watkins is the University Archivist for the University of Maryland Libraries. She is also the Founder of Project STAND, a consortium of 70 colleges and universities documenting, archiving, and advocating for historical and archival resources about marginalized and vulnerable student populations. She is also a 2019 Mover and Shaker, served on Society of American Archivist’s Appointments Committee (2018), Nominating Committee (2019-2020), Association of Research Libraries, Leadership and Career Development Program fellow (2018-2019). She is co-chair of the 1856 Project, Universities Studying Slavery at the University of Maryland, and has given national and international keynotes on reparative archives.
Zita Cristina Nunes
Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature
University of Maryland, College Park
Zita Cristina Nunes is the author of Cannibal Democracy, Cataloging Black Knowledge: How Dorothy Porter Assembled and Organized a Premier Africana Research Collection, and the Black Card Collective blog, Dr. Nunes is completing two projects—a book manuscript, Racism in Translation: Multiligualism, the Harlem Renaissance, Comparative Literature and the Digital Bilingual (Portuguese/English) Edition of Correio de Africa [Africa Mail] Newspaper (1921-24) with Scholarly Apparatus, which is made possible in part by a major three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
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