As an educator and memory worker, my approach is grounded in Black feminist theory and my lived experiences as Black queer, disabled, cis-gender woman. I aim to cultivate caring, accessible spaces for dialogue, collaboration, co-learning and unlearning. I encourage students to bring the fullness of their experiences and interests to the classroom as I believe that the personal is political and that political education is ongoing and necessary for an equitable future for this profession. My curricula center the work and needs of marginalized community archives/libraries/organizations in order to autonomously, ethically, and collectively preserve their memories and shape their futures. I also stand in solidarity with calls for liberatory memory work, accountability, abolition, legal support, wealth redistribution, land repatriation, and equitable resource funding as it relates to community archives and libraries and the communities who steward them. My goal is to embolden future and current librarians and archivists to research, question, imagine, cooperate, create, and iterate in service of abolishing oppressive structures and remembering and building frameworks that honor and recognize the humanity of those who have been harmed and neglected in extant systems within archives and libraries, and in the world, broadly.

COURSES:

GSLIS 790 - Community Archives and Libraries
This course introduces students to community archives and libraries: their historical evolution and current state; their contributions to LIS theory; and the unique issues relating to their creation, management, and sustainability. The course explores notions of community and identity, concepts of symbolic annihilation and representational belonging, community sovereignty, and custodial and post-custodial models. Grounded in practice, this course includes a central element of community collaboration and multiple engagements with local community archives and libraries.