SAADA Summer Fellowship in Community Archiving: A Grassroots Effort to Diversify Humanities Collections

FAIN: PE-296033-24

South Asian American Digital Archive, NFP (Philadelphia, PA 19107-4701)
Samip Kumar Mallick (Project Director: May 2023 to present)

Twelve summer community archives fellowships for master’s students, in which participants would receive mentorship while conducting oral histories and collecting South Asian American community materials and developing public programming to share their projects.

The SAADA Summer Fellowship in Community Archiving is an intensive, two-month summer fellowship program that will provide training in community archival practices and digital preservation to master’s-level students who have a demonstrated interest in the South Asian American community and the preservation and care of humanities collections. Fellows will learn about the operations and programming work within a community-based archive, including digitizing materials, licensing and copyright law, creating metadata for archival objects, conducting oral history interviews, and ethical issues around community storytelling. They will also be exposed to a range of career readiness and discovery opportunities. During the program, each fellow will create a digital collection and curate an exhibit highlighting a South Asian American community of which they are themselves a member, or in which they have deep existing relationships.