Archiving Puerto Rico: Digital Memory and the Temporalities of Disaster

FAIN: RZ-292627-23

Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI 48824-3407)
Christina Boyles (Project Director: November 2022 to present)

Writing of a book that describes a digital archiving project based in Puerto Rico and its contributions to disaster studies and the digital humanities. (24 months)

“Archiving Puerto Rico: Digital Memory and the Temporalities of Disaster” explores the intersections of critical disaster studies, digital humanities, and lived experiences in the Puerto Rican archipelago, utilizing the non-hierarchical collaborative strategies of AREPR. The proposed volume, composed of six chapters and an afterword, incorporates contributions from AREPR’s team members and community partners that are grounded in new theories of digital humanities and disaster studies that emerged from the project. Authors explore post-custodial archiving practices used in building AREPR’s digital repository that allow community partners and academics to cocreate research and collaboratively design project outputs. Related topics sit at the nexus of participatory design, memory work, social and climate justice, and digital time. Archiving Puerto Rico provides a framework for scholars, cultural institutions, and community organizations to develop similar collaborative projects.