As libraries, archives, and museums strive to be welcoming to all people, they are confronting bias and subsequent harm in how cultural heritage materials have been collected, described, and shared. Whose stories are told? Whose stories are marginalized? Whose stories are misrepresented or silenced? Reparative archiving is one approach by which we might find solutions to the bias and limits of the archive and begin to repair the ruptures and past harms.
As our guest speaker, Lae’l Hughes-Watkins, Associate Director of Engagement, Inclusion, and Reparative Archiving in Special Collections and University Archives at the University of Maryland has written, “the building of a reparative archive via acquisition, advocacy, and utilization can assist in decolonizing traditional archives and bringing historically oppressed voices in from the margins.” Please join the University of Chicago Library, the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, and the Department of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity to learn about social justice through reparative archival praxis.
Event Details
Title: Reparative Acts and the Caste of Archival Erasure
Speaker: Lae’l Hughes-Watkins
When: March 27, 2024 10:00-12:00pm
Where: Hybrid – Regenstein Library room 122 and Zoom
This event will be closed captioned. To request other accommodations, please contact adrianho@uchicago.edu as soon as possible.
