Season 5, Episode 5: Not Just for Scholars: Democratizing the Archives

Archives are central to the work of historians. But they are not just for scholars. In this episode, we talk with an archivist, an archival theorist, and a historian, all working to democratize these spaces, what they hold, and who can access them.

Archives are central to the work of historians. But they are not just for scholars. In this episode, we talk with an archivist, an archival theorist, and a historian, all working to democratize these spaces, what they hold, and who can access them. 

Professor Patricia Garcia will help us think about the archives through a critical lens. Archivist Brian Williams will help us understand how to build an archive essentially from scratch. And Professor Stephen Berrey will help us understand what role the public can play in archival endeavors.

View the full episode transcript.

Historian Biographies

Stephen A. Berrey is an associate professor in the Departments of History and American Culture at the University of Michigan. His research and writing explores the relationship between race and culture in the twentieth century United States. His first book, The Jim Crow Routine: Everyday Performances of Race, Civil Rights, and Segregation in Mississippi, was published in 2015. He is director of the Sundown Towns Project.

Patricia Garcia is an assistant professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan. She is currently working on an NSF CAREER project, partnering with public libraries to study how a computational justice program model can support girls of color developing agentic computing identities. Her other related work, in collaboration with the co-authors of The Feminist Data Manifest-No, examines how harmful data practices perpetuate structural inequities along racialized and gendered lines.

Brian Williams is assistant director and archivist for university history at the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. He is the project lead for the Bentley’s African American Student Project, working with a team of researchers, volunteers, and collaborators to document the history of African American students at the university. The project’s centerpiece is a searchable database of every African American student who attended the university for any length of time from 1853 until 1980.

Production Credits

Episode Producers:  Paige Newhouse, Enrieth Martinez-Palacios, Talitha Pam, Cheyenne Pettit, Sophie Wunderlich

Host and Season Producer: Paige Newhouse

Executive Producer: Gregory Parker

Editorial Board: Henry Cowles, Enrieth Martinez Palacios, Talitha Pam, Cheyenne Pettit, Sophie Wunderlich

Voice Actors: Maya Sudarkasa

Interviews: Stephen Berrey (Paige Newhouse, 2024), Patricia García (Enrieth Martinez-Palacios, Paige Newhouse, 2024), Brian Williams (Cheyenne Pettit, Paige Newhouse, 2024)

Student Interviews: Rachael Barrett, Markus Merin, Irene Mora

Audio:

• timmyg62, “College Football Game.wav” (Freesound , CC0 1.0 DEED)
• JarredKarp, “Going through book …” (Freesound, CC BY-NC 4.0 DEED)
• Thato Madiskwane, “paper flipping.wav 190246” (Freesound, CC BY-NC 4.0 DEED)
• sportygurl37, “Writing.wav” (Freesound, CC BY 3.0 DEED)
• kvgarlic, “AugustNightInCornField.wav” (Freesound, CC0 1.0 DEED)

Music:

• Migfus20, “Relaxing Music” (Freesound, CC BY 4.0 DEED)

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