Beyond the Computer Centre
Exploring How Digital Resources Could Support Increased Accessibility To Records and Community Memory on the SGWU Student Occupation
About The Project
This research (which includes the research essay, the Archival Research Guide, and website) was created by Sammy Holmes (she/they) as part of their degree completion for a Masters in Public History with Specialization in Digital Humanities from Carleton University.
This research was motivation by the desire to create a conceptual bridge between archival records at Concordia University's two archives (the Records Management and Archives (RMA), and Library's Special Collections) and counter-archival sources on the Sir George Williams student occupation of 1969 (also known as the Sir George Williams Affair). The creation of resources that promote increased access to archival records, as well as those that uplift community memory on the student occupation that exist beyond the walls of their institution, is an essential part of the RMA and Special Collections' responsibilities, as chroniclers of change and continuity at Concordia University. Archivists are political actors and through their practices they shape historical narratives in the past and present. Taking influence from critical archival studies and reparative archival theory, the goal of this research is to demonstrate how future learning on the student occupation could be supported through the creation of resources that increase accessibility, while creating a bridge of dialogue between various forms of knowledge and sources on the student occupation. This includes bridges between the records at the RMA and Special Collections, and also between the archival records at Concordia University archives as a whole and the community-based counter-archival art.
It is important to note that the research paper, Archival Research Guide, and website were informed and shaped by the research experience of Holmes, a white, queer settler masters student. These resources and resources were created as examples how a dialogue amongst Concordia's archives and the broader community could be furthered and broadened. However, the formal development of such an initiative rests with the interested parties, namely archives and members of Montreal's Black and Afro-Caribbean communities, who are leading the conversations and demands for Concordia University to acknowledge this history of the student occupation and its legacy.
The Website
The website hosts the Archival Research Guide, Additional Sources, and the accompanying Major Research Essay, completed as part of the program requirements for an MA in Public History with a Digital Humanities Specialization at Carleton University. The website was created as an example of the potential resources that Concordia's two archives could create in order to promote additional access to the records they preserve on the event within their institutions, while also encouraging further research of educational sources, and community-based sources and counter-archival art pieces that document Black and Afro-Caribbean community memory on the student occupation.
Archival Research Guide
The Research Guide serves as a bridge between the records on the student occupation at the RMA and Special Collections. The Guide provides users a general overview of important fonds, collections, and records on the student occupation preserved at the RMA and Special Collections. The main goal of the Research Guide is to make it easier for those interested in learning about the student occupation to understand the variety of records and materials that exist on the event at Concordia University, where they are located, and the procedures/expectations that are part of accessing the records in both archives. The Research Guide can be printed out or accessed as PDF to use as a compliment to research on the online Shared Catalogue of the RMA and Special Collections (https://concordia.accesstomemory.org/) or when conducting an in-person archival visit to either archive.
Bibliography
While the Archival Research Guide helps users and researchers on the student occupation to locate preserved archival material on the event within the walls of the institution, the Bibliography emphasizes the importance of pairing this research with community-based sources on the history of the event. The Bibliography provides users a list of essential sources that preserve and engage with community memory on the event in order to uplift this knowledge while supporting education on the history of this event that subverts the institutionalized narrative presented by the RMA in the past. The Bibliography can be printed out or accessed as a PDF.