Paradox of Exposure: Archiving in Community

Session Submission Type: Skills- and Resource-Sharing Session

Abstract

This workshop brings together scholars with various archival practices in the interdisciplinary fields of American studies, feminist studies, education, and art history. Our workshop focuses on the process of memory-making and the various modes that archiving is practiced in community and interdisciplinary spaces. With the shift towards solely digital archival databases and disinvestment in digital humanities, we are interested in investigating the irony of the digital archive being both accessible and ephemeral, consequently leaving a yearning for the tangibility in memory-making and, thus, archiving. Using both digital and ephemeral materials, we will guide participants through a step-by-step archiving process and facilitate a conversation surrounding the ethics of archives. This workshop asks how important is process and memory in archiving? How do we, individually and collectively, create agency in making our own histories? Building with D’Ignazio and Klein’s (2020) “paradox of exposure,” this workshop challenges ethical practices of collecting and disseminating data, specifically the unwanted threat and exposure to surveillance from institutional power structures such as the nation-state violence towards vulnerable people. Thinking through the paradox of exposure allows us to be critical of our approaches to archiving, storytelling, and dissemination.

In this conference session, participants will be able to upload a photo, writing, and other materials using their phones or computers to create a digital zine. The facilitators will provide additional materials for on-the-spot contributions, such as a Polaroid camera and film. Participants can then select to scan a copy of their contribution (with permission) which the facilitators will send as a digital PDF copy and notes after the conference. This workshop will center memory-making and collaboration and allow for an opportunity for hands-on practice to inspire future community archivists and storytellers. During the late-stage empire, our collective work sees both community storytelling and preservation as a way to capture lineages of resistance and hope. Our workshop closes with a tangible takeaway and inspires folks to build with one another.

Sub Unit

• Annual Meeting of the American Studies Association

Panelists

• Ezekiel Acosta, University of New Mexico

• Rosa Angela Calosso, CUNY Graduate School and University Cent

• Jeannette Martinez, University of New Mexico

Comment

• Alex Mireles, University of California Santa Barbara

Biographical Information

Ezekiel Acosta (el/he) is a doctoral student in the American Studies Department at the University of New Mexico. His fields of concentration are Central American Studies, Archival Studies, and Sexuality and Gender in Latinx Studies. His work analyzes visual art and archives together as storytelling methods. Look out for Bloom/Enflorecer on Instagram, a collaborative project by Ezekiel and his colleague, Jeannette Martinez, that will highlight Central American history, artists, and collectives.

Rosa Angela Calosso (she/her/ella) is a doctoral candidate in the Urban Education program at the CUNY Graduate Center. Rosa’s upbringing informed a strong understanding of immigration issues, Blackness, and gendered politics, leading her to serve as a participatory-action researcher in immigrant communities in the Bronx. She has served as an academic consultant for first and second-year college students and a social media curator for a social justice center. Additionally, supporting teacher educators on computer-integrated teacher educational praxis and tools. Her research explores how Black Dominican women utilize social media as a tool for community-building, educational space, and critical reflection and resistance. The research highlights Black Dominican women’s ability to teach, cultivate community, and resist institutional ‘isms in an age when mainstream media uses social media users’ content to discuss global political discourses and explicate sociopolitical events.

Jeannette Martinez is a Ph.D. Candidate in the art history program at the University of New Mexico. Her research explores how artists of the Central American diaspora navigate transgenerational trauma, historical erasure, multidirectional memory and transnational placehood by utilizing modes of landscape representation to create a visuality of belonging. Jeannette is also co-creator of Bloom/Enflorecer on Instagram, a collaborative project with fellow graduate student, Ezekiel Acosta, that will highlight Central American history, artists, and collectives.

Alex Mireles is a doctoral student in the Department of Feminist Studies at UC Santa Barbara, where she investigates Latinx identity, queerness, and global capitalism through aesthetic movements in fashion, media, and visual cultures. Her dissertation, Paisa Imaginaries: Creative Labor, Colonial Legacies, and the Queering of Mexican Popular Culture, explores the queer potential and world-making capabilities within Chicanx popular culture, focusing on Mexican regional music, social media, queer nightlife, and film. Mireles examines how these cultural elements intersect and influence each other, offering new perspectives on identity and expression. Beyond her academic work, she is a co-founder of the Queer Arts Collective and brings a rich background in production to her endeavors. With experience as a wardrobe stylist, line producer, and assistant director, she blends creative practice with scholarly insight to contribute to both fields. Her work highlights the dynamic interplay between cultural production and academic research.