What We Do Crosses over to Activism”

Bibliographic Data

ID11666306
AuthorsMarika Cifor (0000-0002-1645-7158, corresponding author), Michelle Caswell (0000-0002-6710-597X), Alda Allina Migoni, Noah Geraci (0000-0003-2161-6771)
Year2018
Volume40
Issue2
Pages69-95
Publication date2018-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Public Historian (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0272-3433 • E-ISSN: 1533-8576
PublisherUniversity of California Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1525/tph.2018.40.2.69
OpenAlexW2800525094
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited32

Using data gleaned from semistructured interviews with seventeen community archives founders, volunteers, and staff at twelve sites, this paper examines the relations and roles of community archives and archivists in social justice activism. Our research uncovered four findings on the politics of community archives. First, community-based archivists identify as activists, advocates, or community organizers, and this identification shapes their understandings of community archives work and the missions of community archives. Second, community-based archives offer substantial critiques of neutrality in their ethical orientations and thus present new ethical foundations for practice. Third, by activating their collections, community archives play significant roles within contemporary social movements including struggles for racial justice and against gentrification. Finally, community archives are at the forefront of the profession in their engagements with activists. Community archives have much to contribute to practice and scholarship on activism, outreach, and public engagement with the past

Community building · Community engagement · Community organization · Community organizing · Economic Justice · Gentrification · Media studies · Neutrality · Outreach · Political activism · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Scholarship · Social activism · Sociology · Digital and Traditional Archives Management · Engineering · Law · Memory, Trauma, and Commemoration · Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis

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