Building an Interdisciplinary and Holistic Curriculum on Archival Studies

In/Tangible Pedagogies is a series of presentations that has been specifically created to provide first-hand accounts to students exploring the field of archives and information science. The series will serve as part of a new and innovative course designed to give students hands-on interdisciplinary experience in critical archival studies using materials and resources from the University of Miami Libraries' distinctive collections—introducing them to the fundamentals of archival theory and practice used in libraries, archives, and museums. It features talks and discussions led by experts who are actively engaged in Caribbean archival curating, preservation, and theorization.

This series is co-sponsored by the University of Miami Department of Modern Languages and Literatures and the Marta S. Weeks Chair in Latin American Studies.

In the 2021 fall semester, University of Miami faculty Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel (Marta S. Weeks Chair in Latin American Studies and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures), Amanda Moreno (Cuban Heritage Collection Archivist), Béatrice Skokan (Head of Manuscripts & Archives Management and Curator of Caribbean Collections), and Martin Tsang (Cuban Heritage Collection Librarian and Curator of Latin American Collections) will be co-teaching the graduate class “In/Tangible Pedagogies: Building an Interdisciplinary and Holistic Curriculum on Archival Studies.” The class was awarded an Andrew W. Mellon CREATE grant, and it will be held in the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami Libraries (UML).

The first of its kind, the course is designed to give hands-on interdisciplinary experience in critical archival studies, introducing UM students in the arts and sciences to the fundamentals of archival theory and practice. The class will help students to interrogate and ultimately add to our understanding of archives, using the wealth of materials from UML's distinctive collections with an emphasis on the Caribbean and Latin America. Students will obtain training in multiple facets of archival processing, preservation, and collection management. By doing so, each student will be able to better understand the decisions, labor, and practices that go into the creation, care, and use of archives and their spaces. The class will also explore how archives are transforming their practices and scope and how the horizons of archives are expanding to make room for different types of professional practices. 

CREATE is an interdisciplinary, cross-curricular grants program with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It encourages and oversees the integration of cultural resources from the University of Miami Libraries and Lowe Art Museum into teaching, learning, and research by facilitating close collaboration and resource-sharing among university faculty, students, and external constituencies.