EDIC-PDC Workshop by Josie Cohen-Rodriguez and Lotus Norton-Wisla

About the event

Title:  Building and Researching Queer Community-Driven Archives in the Pacific Northwest: Engaging Communities and Developing Guiding Principles

Abstract:  

This workshop will explore collaborative approaches to developing and sustaining queer community-driven archives. Facilitators will share their research and pedagogical approaches to interrogating institutional power structures and moves towards more equitable and reciprocal learning models. Facilitators will outline the founding of the Washington State University Queer Archives (WSUQA) and provide an overview of their guiding principles that center relationality, community-driven decision making, counter-storytelling, and self-determination for queer communities. Additionally, there will be conversations around utilizing original research conducted at queer archives throughout western Oregon and how this research was adapted to build elements of the WSUQA.  

Bios:  

Josie Cohen-Rodriguez is a community-based educator from the border towns of Yuma, Arizona and San Luis, Mexico. She currently serves as the LGBTQ+ Center’s Student Life & Community Coordinator, while also pursuing a PhD in English Literary Studies at Washington State University in Pullman. Her research explores community and land-based archives, queer of color epistemologies, multimodality, genre, and transnational critique. She works with an amazing team at the LGBTQ+ Center, where she writes zines with students, supports programming and equity initiatives, and facilitates community engagement with the WSU Queer Archives. Josie recently co-published with Lotus Norton-Wisla in the Journal of Radical Librarianship, where they shared approaches to developing and sustaining community-driven archiving initiatives. 

Lotus Norton-Wisla is the Interim Head of the Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) department at the Washington State University Libraries. She manages the department and supports her colleagues in collecting, preserving, and stewarding the rare and unique items in the MASC’s collections related to the history of WSU and the Pacific Northwest. In her role as Community Outreach Archivist for MASC and the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation (CDSC), she builds and supports collaborative relationships, with an interest in supporting WSU campus connections, Indigenous nations, and community-driven archives. She co-founded the WSU Queer Archives with Josie Cohen-Rodriguez in 2022 and supports CDSC initiatives including Mukurtu CMS and the Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal. Her research interests include LGBTQ+ history and archives, digital stewardship, and collaboration with Indigenous information professionals. In her free time, she enjoys making art, zines, and spending time outside.