Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives

Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives

Pedagogy

This article gives a transparent view of how archives have been affected by white supremacy. Caswell provides simple ways for students and professionals to dismantle the signs of white supremacy in archives across the United States. Caswell’s greatest teaching is the ethics behind the critique of materials. Caswell creates a model of behaviors to help students resist the unconscious teachings of white supremacy by retraining the impressionable students in her class. Caswell explains that the election of President Trump, who has shown to be homophobic, sexist and racist, has created a divide in the classroom. The only way to prevent this is for teachers to intervene pedagogically. The students identify instances in which archives have white privilege embedded in them and how to collectively strategize steps to dismantle white supremacy in the student’s own personal archiving. Caswell proposes that students will exhibit behavior based on what is already innate in their minds, but Caswell’s model of behavior trains students to think differently.
Caswell’s article gives real life instruction on how politics both in the past and currently, effect digital or physical archiving. While most people don’t intentionally allow white privilege in archiving, Caswell’s article shows that it is an unconscious act that is done from years of example from the many role models of a person’s life.

Michelle Caswell

The Library Quarterly

July 2017

Abbygail Dees

Journal Article

Caswell, Michelle. "Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives," The Library Quarterly 87, no. 3 (July 2017): 222-235. https://doi.org/10.1086/692299