The class read different sources and then answered questions in order for the class to better understand the varying views of archives.
Group 1: Intro to Archives
Group 1: Intro to Archives (Mia, Breanne, Allison) “At Work in the Archives: Place-Based Research and Writing” highlights the potential utilization of archives. Gaillet and Rose outline the understanding of what archiving research methods entail including gathering and organizing materials in order to preserve and share certain parts of the past in order to educate and research a topic. It is often up to the person responsible for archiving to decide what evidence is significant, how to preserve these pieces of evidence, all while working with the primary and archival sources firsthand. Archival investigation is useful to students and educators, as it allows individuals to gain knowledge of a topic as well as research and writing skills that can greatly raise awareness to problems and issues investigated within the research. “The Promise of the Sociological Imagination” discusses the experiences of individual lives as those individuals are often trapped within the different aspects that affect personal lives. Mills highlights the way that becoming aware of the challenges an individual faces can tend to worsen that trapped feeling. The solution to this is seeing the world as a tool that can help make us wiser and smarter about how we go about our lives So that eventually we are able to utilize sociological imagination in order to understand intersectionality in terms of one's own biography and their larger historical and social context.
This source started off with David Gold, a student at the University of Texas at Austin, where he began to notice that all of the readings he found in his rhetoric program focused on events surrounding Ivy League institutions, despite not going to an Ivy League school himself. From there he began to notice that there was a very narrow focus on the history of less prestigious American colleges and their students. When he began to get interested in the archiving process he found it to be quite a change from large public libraries. He described the process as similar to putting together a jigsaw puzzle without a reference image. Gold began to focus his research on specifically historically African American colleges, and their histories of rhetoric programs in comparison to white colleges, but he was advised to turn away from this, and instead he began to focus more broadly on colleges with rhetorical programs that have been marginalized historically, like women’s colleges. Gold was determined to share these stories due to his own history of being a second-generation American, and the first in his family to go to college. He wanted to not only expand on the body of the historical knowledge in my field but also do justice to the diverse experiences of the students and professors at these marginalized universities. Towards the end Gold describes the archival process again, however this time he describes the process as “largely organic,” and that it is important to read absolutely everything in order to make sense of what has happened, and that that process will be messy, and scary since there is no guarantee one will find what they are looking for. This risk can also lead to something Gold describes as happy accidents, where someone can find something they were never even looking for in the first place. Gold also describes how the archiving process is never really done, and sometimes, the things found during the archiving process won’t be understood until years later.
This essay focuses on Gesa Kirsch’s search for more information on the life of Dr. Mary Bennett Ritter. Often in the essay Kirsch asks herself different questions about Ritter's life, which leads her on her research journey. She notes how it was originally hard to find primary sources by Ritter, since she was a woman from the late 19th century. Most of Ritter's works were recorded under more well known authors' names and the Prytanean Society. The only reason that she could figure out that any of Ritter’s works had been saved is because she married Wiliam Ritter (the first director of the SIO). At this point in her research her goal was “to recover the contributions made by Ritter to public life, medical history, and women’s history”. Kirsch discovered that Ritter had been part of the Prytanean Society, which led her to many more resources. From there she was led to a journal editor’s office to find many special issue articles on women’s history at UC. Kirsch then notes how people doing archival research need to have a certain mindset. They need to pay attention to different cultural norms and how they can change. They also need to pay attention to the biases that the person they are researching may have and how they differ from their own. They also have to keep in mind how to present the person in a respectful and critical light. Kirsch also notes the importance of networking while researching and after researching, as it can help both you and others. Kirsch had been talking to a man for 2 years to prepare for her trip to Berkely. He allowed her to better navigate the archives, as he prepared things for her and knew how to work with archival staff. She also learned to ask archive staff for help when researching things, since they are great at finding other sources. Sources At Work in the Archives: Place-Based Research and Writing Lynée Lewis Gaillet and Jessica Rose The Sociological Imagination C. Wright Mills (1959): Oxford University Press Beyond the Archives- Part 1: Chapter 1 Beyond the Archives : Research As a Lived Process, edited by Gesa E. Kirsch, Southern Illinois University Press, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/soka-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1354402. Created from soka-ebooks on 2022-01-18 06:27:23. Beyond The Archives - Part 1 Chapter 2 Kirsch, G. E. (2008). Being on location: serendipity, place, and archival research. Beyond the Archives: Research As a Lived Process, 20-27. Southern Illinois University Press.
Group 2: Queer Archives
Group 2: Queer Archives (Taiji, Kayoko, Pauline) Queer contradicts society’s claim that everyone’s gender, sex, and desires are configured in specific ways, namely heterosexual and cisgender (Jagose, 1996, p.3). Queer should not be captured in a simple definition because its possible meanings are broad and evershifting, and it represents the blurring of categories rather than a modern category (Jagose, 1996, p.6). Queer archives are, in a way, a combination of collective and selective memories. Collective memories work “selectively, imaginatively, and perversely” (Davy, 2008, p. 133), differentiating from selective memory, as this process requires public enactments of forgetting. Queer archival work also includes cultural memories, revealing the painful realities of erasures from heteronormativity and forgetting (Davy, 2008). Queer archives emcompasses and signal the wide range of identities, theories, praxes, and sensibilities. Queer archives can differentiate from LGBTQ archives as queer archives can evolve as part of a reaction against the political perspectives and leaning toward assimilation that can characterize gay and lesbian movements (Davy, 2008). Davy highlighted the significance of maintenance and creation of anecdotal evidence of lives of silenced voices within lesbian archival work (Davy, 2008, p. 135). Researchers tend to use the term LGBTQ and queer interchangeably while referencing archives for the most part.
The Archive of New York City’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Community Center features the stories of LGBTQ people from many different backgrounds. It includes stories of queer activism and artifacts/ephemera like buttons, t-shirts, handmade zines made by and for queer people (Hugh). Queer and LGBTQ archival locations hold what would be lost to historical records. Davy then describes them as archeological sites to find the deep history of stories and memories that have not been heard of or told. The Lesbian Herstory Archive is another location of LGBTQ archives, mainly on lesbian experiences and memories. Kate Davy (2008) often visited in search of more anecdotal information on Women’s One World (WOW) and what they encompassed. Although WOW is a feminist-driven organization, it also emcompasses archival evidence of queer culture (Davy). Several archive collections are dedicated to queer materials like ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives or Lesbian Herstory Archives. However, many well-known mainstream institutions also carry LGBTQ archives, including the University of Southern California Library, New York Public Library, etc (Retzloff, 2017). It displays the heterogeneity of the queer community (Hugh). It also includes stories centered on queer people’s everyday lives, including romance and friendships. It collects stories written about and by queer people. Queer archives represent “resistance and survival,” accurate representations of LGBTQ people, and alternative history. Queer archives are also anecdotal evidence of people never written in history books and lost in memory. Thus, it represents lost and silenced voices of queer bodies and brings them out from the dark and forefront (Davy, 2008). Oftentimes, institutions or libraries will collect books and materials that have been donated by those in the LGBTQ community or their families/loved ones. In D’Emilio’s case, he donated the evidence and materials he had collected for his thesis (Retzloff, 2017). While queer archives continue to grow and appear in mainstream institutions, many places still only contain a rather shallow depiction of queer life (Retzloff, 2017).
Sources
Retzloff, T. (2017, October 18). Queer digging in the Archives. Process: a blog for american history. Retrieved January 11, 2022, from http://www.processhistory.org/retzloff-queer-archives/
Beyond the Archives - Part 3 Chapter 13:
Kirsch, G., Rohan, L.; Davy, K. (2008). Cultural Memory and Lesbian Archive. In Beyond the archives: Research as a lived process (pp. 128–135). essay, Southern Illinois University Press.
Hugh, R. (n.d.) Why Queer Archives Are Important: A Study of LGBTQ Life. Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved January 12, 2022, from https://artsandculture.google.com/story/why-queer-archives-are-important-a-study-of-lgbtq-life/IgUxCMW95_E9-Q
Jagose, A. (1996). Queer theory: An introduction. nyu Press.
Group 3: Power and Archives
Group 3: Power and Archives (Carol, Wren, Vianne) In archival research, it’s necessary to consider one’s positionality in relation to the positionality of who is archived, as well as the power differentials in archiving or memory practices. In “Being on Location: Serendipity, Place, and Archival Research” (2008) Gesa E. Kirsh studies the life of Dr. Mary Bennett Ritter, a physician, women’s rights advocate, and civic leader active in California (p. 20). Archival materials were often limited, although it is important to consider that one of the main reasons her papers had survived is because her husband was the director of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, where she was an archivist (p. 20). Overall, it was searching through part of an interview when Kirsch became aware of her own positionality, where she was struck by the cultural values of their times between the interviewer and interviewee (p. 24). It was a significant challenge to create a space both critical and respectful in her studies. In “Colonial Memory, Colonial Research: A Preamble to a Case Study” (2008) Victor Villanueva explores the culture and past of Puerto Rico and its connections to his father. In researching Pedro Albizu Campos, a symbolic figure to some, he discovered that Spanish resources were plentiful and often honored him (p.90). It was important for him to consider how some texts painted him in a light that some others did not. In “Unbundling Archival Research and Japanese American Communal Memory of U.S. Justice Department (1941-45), Gail Y. Okawa dedicates her work to her grandfather, Reverend Watanabe, who sent letters to her mother from an internment camp (p. 94). Okawa’s story represents how her positionality as the granddaughter of an internee and as a Japanese American fueled her desire for research and desire not to forget the memory of those like her grandfather. Thanks to relatives of internees who came forward with their stories, her research became a communal memory (p. 104). Furthermore, in “Mississippi on My Mind,” (2008) W. Ralph Eubanks examines the opening of the once-secret files of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, whose purpose was to feed the climate of fear and suspicion between Black and white communities (p. 107). His positionality both caused hesitance in his own research and fueled it. On one hand, he was afraid to taint the memories of his home state, but on the other, he was curious as to why his parents were worthy of being watched by the state (p. 109). His research also revealed power dynamics in the archival process: he found that many files had been closed and some were not present in the main archives of the Sovereignty Commission in Jackson, meaning some key information had likely been destroyed (p. 113). Overall, the archives revealed significant insights on how power dynamics and positionality are necessary to consider in the archival and memory process. Sources Kirsch, G. E. (Ed.). (2008). Beyond the archives : Research as a lived process. Southern Illinois University Press. (pp. 107-114) Kirsch, G. E. (Ed.). (2008). Beyond the archives : Research as a lived process. Southern Illinois University Press. (pp. 83-92) Kirsch, G. E. (Ed.). (2008). Beyond the archives : Research as a lived process. Southern Illinois University Press. (pp. 20-27) Kirsch, G. E. (Ed.). (2008). Beyond the archives : Research as a lived process. Southern Illinois University Press. (pp. 93-106)
Group 4: Queering Archives
Group 4: Queering Archives (Tyler, Gray, Cole) In “Queer archives/archival queers,” Morris and Rawson explore the impact of queer representation, study, and history on archival practices to create a reciprocal theory of queer archives - maintaining records of queer existence in the face of historical silencing - and archival queers - asserting identity and power relationships in the practice and act of archiving. Queering archival practices involves a process of asserting queer agency into the historical record-keeping structure. Queer identity is both reflected in the materials found within the archives, and created as archivists and visitors engage affectively with the ephemera present within the records. The acknowledgement and encouragement of queer agency and the archival queer’s power to be a part of shaping narratives that impact modern queer community/world-building effectively shifts previous notions of the power relationship of archive/archivist and prioritizes ways of knowing that lift up relationality and lived experience. Morris and Rawson also acknowledge the lack of historical community memory in the queer community, and argue for collective queer meaning-making through archival remembrance.
In “Categorizing Queer Identities: An Analysis of Archival Practices Using the Concept of Boundary Objects,” Junginger and Dörk address one central issue within queer archives - that queer identities resist categorization. Archives require a system of categorization to remain organized and structured in institutional settings, but queer archives challenge this presupposition about the need for structure by existing in liminal space that resists definitional boundaries. The notion of boundary objects includes a process of flexibility and negotiation where queer identity, in the way that it is recorded and studied, becomes malleable and analyzable in an archival context. Boundary objects maintain the subjective adaptability of queer identification while still allowing a sense of common identity or shared experience to link stories together.
Gill and Akkad explore resistance and power in marginalized communities in “Reshaping Public Memory through Hashtag Curation.” Public memory is, in part, shaped and upheld through the curation of hashtags in digital archives. Critical race theory and the use of counterstories is instrumental in telling marginalized students narratives, particularly Black students, and creating community archives that center ways of knowing and acting that go against the normed power and behavior structures enforced by present institutions. This reveals that social media is an important tool to chronicle marginalized experiences.
Engle explores the need for and future of indigenous archival practices and the de-centering of white supremacist colonial power through radical empathy and indigenous ways of knowing in “Furniture Fit for a Queen: How a Table Led the Way to Building an Inclusive Community Approach to Archival Acquisitions.” The concept of “aloha ʻāina” maintains a current awareness and understanding of genealogies, tells stories, and shares knowledge, and is critical in an inclusive community archival practice that centers indigeneity and indigenous wisdom/ways of knowing. Radical empathetic access theory details the responsibility between the archivist and other groups, and how the group identity shapes the responsibilities inherent in, between, and towards each specific group. Another dynamic involved is decolonization and indigenization . The concept of "ʻōiwi" (ancient bones) reaffirms indigenous Hawaiian identity and reaffirms that memory and knowledge is passed through generations. Decolonization practices in archives include the access and awareness of indigenous wisdom (ex. knowledge from oral traditions) and the centering of indigenous sovereignty. Indigenous archives must center indigenous understandings of meaning.
Sources
Morris, C. E., & Rawson, K. J. (2013). Queer archives/archival queers. In Theorizing Histories of Rhetoric (Vol. 9780809332113, pp. 74-89). Southern Illinois University Press.
Gill, Kelli R., & Akkad, Ruba H. (2021, November 8). Reshaping Public Memory through Hashtag Curation. [Special issue on Unsettling the Archives.] Across the Disciplines, 18(1/2), 191-200. https://doi.org/10.37514/ATD-J.2021.18.1-2.15
Junginger, P., & Dörk, M. (2021). Categorizing Queer Identities: An Analysis of Archival Practices Using the Concept of Boundary Objects. Journal of Feminist Scholarship, 19(19), 66-79. University of Rhode Island. https://doi.org/10.23860/jfs.2021.19.05
Engle, Cynthia. “Furniture Fit for a Queen: How a Table Led the Way to Building an Inclusive
Community Approach to Archival Acquisitions.” Across the Disciplines, vol. 18, no. 1-2,
2021, pp. 59–72., https://doi.org/10.37514/atd-j.2021.18.1-2.06.