Following design justice perspectives to lay the groundwork for a digital archive of Oxford College’s Muslim Students Association

From Wes Bernstein October 21st, 2022

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Born out of conversations around the thirtieth anniversary of Oxford College's Muslim Students Association (MSA), this project uses digital tools to uncover and preserve the many ways MSA and its members have actively participated in and shaped the life of our college and the wider community. To that end, REL383 Islam in America students began conducting oral history interviews in the spring of 2022 with MSA alumni about their experiences and memories. The project has continued as an undergraduate research project to preserve and share these important stories through Emory University's digital tools, such as Aviary, OHMS, and Omeka. Taking cues from design justice practitioners, our work-in-progress presentation focuses on the ethical responsibilities of digital scholarship collaborations with marginalized communities. It spells out how we ensure that community members are included in meaningful ways throughout the design and research process. Attendees will learn about the steps we have taken in cooperation with the library's Digital Projects Team to meet the ethical responsibilities for digital scholarship at the intersection of community collaboration and social justice. These include early collaborative efforts with MSA stakeholders during conceptualization, communication protocols and outreach to potential interview subjects, and a customized consent process resulting in different levels of accessibility for individual archival items. Finally, we will address future directions, such as formalizing MSA stakeholders' participation by creating an advisory board.

Presenters: Florian Pohl (he/him/his) | (Oxford College of Emory University), Kerry Bowden (Oxford College of Emory University), Paige Crowl (Oxford College of Emory University), Alexandrea Kord (Oxford College of Emory University), Zylah Markham

(Oxford College of Emory University), Zainab Salako (Oxford College of Emory University)

Tags: budsc22digital scholarshipoxford college of emory

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