Presentation

Partnering with Historically Excluded Communities through Oral History: Community Engagement from the Archival Perspective

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Abstract

This session will offer critical approaches to community engagement with underrepresented communities through two oral history projects: The Asian Alumni & Student Oral History Project at the University of Iowa and the Transgender Oral History Project of Iowa at the LGBTQ Iowa Archives & Library. Oral Historians Jin Chang and Aiden Bettine, from an institutional archives and a community archives respectively, will discuss how both projects prioritize narrator autonomy. Through reflexive, identity-based praxis, the presenters will share their perspectives on archiving their community’s own history in the Midwest. Jin Chang began the Asian Alumni & Student Oral History Project in response to the murder of Asian Women in Atlanta in April of 2021 and recognition that Asian student life was largely absent from the University Archives. Capturing the experiences of Asian Iowans also challenges the traditional view of Asian American studies that privilege the experience of the coasts. In short, these oral histories capture a unique type of racialization that occurs in the Midwest. Aiden Bettine founded the Transgender Oral History Project of Iowa and the LGBTQ Iowa Archives & Libraries with the goal of enabling queer and trans people to preserve and share their own history. This work offers a disruption to existing queer history which privileges urban centers such as New York or San Francisco. This work preserves queer history that is uniquely Iowan and Midwestern in nature. Guided by a shared ethos centered on community control and participation, this session will offer reflections on ethical community engagement from an archival context, regardless of organizational size and resources.

How to Cite:

Bettine, A. & Chang, J., (2022) “Partnering with Historically Excluded Communities through Oral History: Community Engagement from the Archival Perspective”, MAC Annual Meeting Presentations 2022(1).