In addition to archival methods being one of my research interests and the focus of my dissertation, I am also a student in The University of North Texas’ Department of Information Science and will complete a Graduate Academic Certificate in Archival Management. As I continue to expand my understanding of archival studies, I have had the opportunity engage in hands on archival work with the following archival projects:
The Gloria V. Sanchez Collection
My mother, Gloria, has documented and curated our family history for over 40 years, illustrating a gendered, race, and class based analysis of the city from the perspective of a ninth generation Tejana from the Southside of San Antonio. With her permission, we are in the process of creating an archive and engaging in archival practices of our own making, thus contesting “traditional” archival standards that refuse to recognize the storage and preservation strategies developed through experiential knowledge and bound by ancestral legacies.
The Marcia Niemann Feminist Activist Collection
Marcia Niemann is the former executive director of the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV) and senior political organizer for the National Organization for Women (NOW) and NARAL Pro-Choice America. In 2019, Niemann donated her rare collection of feminist books, music, protest literature and buttons, and court testimonies to the Texas Woman’s University’s Multicultural Women & Gender Studies Department and Blagg-Huey Library.
This collection captures Niemann’s feminist consciousness and her long commitment to social change. From her personal library and teaching materials that discuss strategies to dismantle harmful, patriarchal ideologies and systems, to her political posters and buttons from protests she organized and attended, Niemann demonstrates the important relationship between theory and practice – learning and “doing.” As we continue our work to complete Niemann’s collection, her story and work will be instructive to anyone who is interested in feminist, social justice education and activism.
GABRIELLA V. SANCHEZ 