New Collections On Board: Benhabib and Bartky

We are proud to announce two new additions to the Feminist Theory Papers. Seyla Benhabib and Sandra Bartky have both sent us materials. These two women have made incredible contributions to the fields of feminist theory, women’s studies, philosophy, and political science. You will find more information about these collections on our website very soon. Stay tuned!

A New Year Begins

Summer has ended and it was a good one for the Feminist Theory Papers. Over the summer, the FTP received five new collections! We are proud to announce the addition of the papers of Linda Martin Alcoff, Jacqueline Bhabha, Diane Middlebrook, Linda Nicholson, and Barbara Herrnstein Smith. Alcoff, Bhabha, and Smith will all be available for research use shortly. The collection has expanded beyond physical collections and now has over 100 committed donors. Please see our website for the full list of future and current donors.

Along with these exciting additions, I am pleased to announce that the Teresa Brennan papers have been processed and the finding aid is in progress. Those materials will be fully ready for research use within the next couple of weeks. The Brennan collection is large and extremely interesting, with materials ranging from 1968 to 2002. More details on the collection very soon!

Finally, we, at the Feminist Theory Papers, have been busy preparing for upcoming projects. We have just launched our effort to create an innovative, inclusive web interface for the Pembroke oral histories that were recently digitized. With the help of volunteers and students, we hope to have the beginnings of a working site up and running in May of 2011. Stay tuned!

As you can see, it has been an exciting summer for the FTP. Here’s to a new academic year, and many new additions.

New Finding Aid Online

I am proud to announce that the Louise A. Tilly papers finding aid (a.k.a. research guide) is now available for use online. Keep an eye out for the Anne Fausto-Sterling and Teresa Brennan finding aids coming soon.

If you are looking for the finding aids of other collections in the Feminist Theory Papers, you can locate them three ways. The first is to visit our website. This site provides a list of the collections, a brief scope and content note about each collection, and a link to the finding aid for each collection.

The second way is to visit the Brown University Library’s Digital Initiatives site and select Archives and Manuscripts from the drop down menu. You can then scan many collections available through the library, including those of the Feminist Theory Papers. (Keep in mind that what you see is not always what you get on archives websites. Many places do not have all of their finding aids online. If you think an archives holds the collection you seek, but you don’t see the finding aid, always ask! They may not have migrated the finding aid into a web document yet.)

The third way to find an FTP collection is to visit the Brown University Library catalog, JOSIAH. You can type in the name of the scholar you seek, and you should yield a link to their papers’ record. You can search the person’s name (ex/ Tilly, Louise), or you can for the papers (ex/ Louise A. Tilly papers).

Good luck! And don’t forget, always feel free to ask for help if you can’t find something!

Society of American Archivists

This past week, I had the pleasure of attending the Society of American Archivists anuual meeting in Austin, Texas. Thousands of archivists gathered to discuss, debate, and share ideas about the sustainability of archives and the archival profession. Amidst the archives mania, I was able to attend the Women’s Collections Round Table. This Round Table meeting provided me the opportunity to introduce the Feminist Theory Papers to my fellow archivists, as well as meet and converse with archivists of such notable women’s collections as the Iowa Women’s Archives, International Archives of Women in Architecture, and the Library of Congress. As a roundtable, we hope to encourage archivists of all types to continue the important discussions about preserving the history of women – a task we take very seriously at the Pembroke Center.

Archives Conferences in 2009

In the past eight months, I have had the pleasure of attending four conferences focused on  archives, and am currently attending a fifth. The first conference occurred in January at Columbia University. Scholars at this conference grappled with the issues of how to preserve their own legacies in the archives, what archives are and what they mean to historic memory, and how we can learn from the gaps in archival collections. In March, the Women Writers Project hosted a two-day conference on women in the archives. Over the two days, scholars of literature, history, and the digital humanities discussed archives and pedagogy, the construction of archival spaces, technologies of research and teaching and the impact of digital media on the archives, and new directions in archival research. The presented papers offered much food for thought, inspiring stimulating, engaging discussions afterward. Later in March, the New England Archivists held their semi-annual meeting focused on the archivist-researcher relationship in the 21st century. Finally, in June, the Maine Women Writers Collection hosted a two day forum on women in the archives. More scholars of history, literature and the digital humanities gathered to discuss pedagogy and archives, recovering archival sources, collection development, materials culture, and biography. Yet again, discussion was lively and engaging, offering a great deal of insight into why archives continue to be important and how scholars are utilizing archives for their own research and in their classrooms.

Between January and June, I have had the opportunity to speak with scholars and archivists from  multiple disciplines, representing colleges and universities of all sizes and foci. Each one engages with the archives differently, but all of them value the archives as a research tool for themselves and their students. What has become abundantly clear to me is the need for regular dialogue between archivists and scholars/researchers.  Through the exchange of information and ideas, archivists can improve finding aids and access to collections and scholars can better understand what archivists do and why. I hope to apply much of what I have learned over the past months to the development of the FTP, making this collection inclusive and accessible.