Libraries

From Symposium to Toolkit: Advancing Black Feminist Archival Literacy

Taelore Marsh recently presented her paper, “Dialogues in Practice: Black Feminist Archival Literacy,” at the Black Information Futures Symposium. This work—and the opportunity to share it on a national platform—was supported by the Office of Equity and Inclusion through an ACCD Grant, which provided critical institutional support to develop, refine, and present this research, enabling Black Feminist Archival Literacy (BFAL) to grow both as a scholarly framework and as an applied pedagogical approach. 

In “Dialogues in Practice,” Marsh explored how archival literacy can function as a dialogical, relational, and liberatory practice grounded in Black feminist praxis. The research highlights three key findings: 

  • Archival literacy is relational. Learning emerges through structured dialogue among facilitators, participants, documents, and lived experiences. 
  • Authority must be interrogated and redistributed. BFAL challenges traditional archival hierarchies by recognizing users—particularly those from marginalized communities—as legitimate knowledge producers. 
  • Memory work functions as pedagogy. When participants engage archival materials through reflection and self-definition, they do more than analyze documents—they reinterpret history and reclaim intellectual space. 

The implications of this research extend beyond archives. BFAL offers a framework for course design, inclusive pedagogy, and collaborative curriculum development rooted in equity and critical engagement. 

 

From Research to Implementation: May Curriculum Design Workshop 

Building on the findings presented at the symposium, Taelore Marsh will host a curriculum design workshop at the end of May. This workshop translates the theoretical foundations of Black Feminist Archival Literacy into practical tools for faculty, staff, and graduate students—particularly early-career professionals seeking structured guidance in inclusive course design. 

The workshop will: 

  • Introduce concepts from Universal Design for Learning (UDL), diplomatics, and archival user expertise 
  • Support participants in auditing and redesigning syllabi through a liberatory lens 
  • Promote inclusive dialogue through structured memory work and archival analysis 
  • Generate collaborative curricular models for inclusion in an open-access teaching toolkit 

Participants will engage in co-design sessions, contribute draft modules, and reflect on how authority, access, and self-definition operate within their courses. The workshop itself will serve as a site of collaborative knowledge production. 

 

Deliverables and Broader Impact 

This initiative will produce: 

  • An open-access teaching toolkit integrating UDL, diplomatics, and archival expertise 
  • A digital learning module for ongoing campus use 
  • Documentation of workshop processes and participant reflections 
  • A public symposium and feedback session in Fall 2025 

Evaluation will include pre- and post-workshop feedback, tracking curriculum integration, and qualitative insights gathered during the public symposium. 

This progression—from ACCD-funded research to national presentation to campus-based implementation—demonstrates the impact of institutional investment in equity-centered scholarship. Support from the Office of Equity and Inclusion has made it possible to move this work from theory to practice, helping ensure that inclusive, dialogical curriculum design becomes sustainable and accessible across campus. 

Curriculum is never neutral; it is an archive of power. Through this work, Taelore Marsh is rethinking and reshaping that archive.