An Honest Reckoning: [Digital] Sites for Black History Research and Scholarship

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

The urgency of representing African American history, culture, and memory as fully as possible is the driving force behind a number of scholarly and library-based initiatives that seek to bring African American history out of the shadows — or the umbra — of American history and place it in the center of our national discourse and historical record. “An Honest Reckoning” convenes archivists, curators, and scholars to talk together about our work with African American collections in libraries, archives, and in the classroom. Representatives from Weeksville Heritage Center, the Library Company of Philadelphia, Lincoln University, and Umbra: Search African American History (umbrasearch.org), with writers/scholars E. Ethelbert Miller and Erin Sharkey, will briefly present current projects and predicaments, followed by an open discussion of how we can activate Black research collections in the classroom and beyond.

Thematic subjects to be discussed include:

-How African American collections and archives are working with scholars and students to identify new voices, new histories, and new stories.
-The role of primary/archival resources in African American scholarship and curricula
-The role of digital technologies, from social media and crowdsourcing to the development of online research sites, in contemporary African American and African Studies scholarship and teaching
-The impact of the “site,” both physical and digital, for Black history research and teaching.

Sub Unit

• 101st Annual Meeting and Conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History

Chair

• Erin Sharkey, Free Black Dirt

Discussants

• Cecily Marcus, Umbra: Search African American History

• Sophia Sotilleo, The Lincoln University

• Krystal Appiah, The Library Company of Philadelphia

• Dorothy Berry, Umbra: Search African American History

• Amaka Okechukwu, Weeksville Heritage Center

• ASALH Audience, .