Digital Justice Grant Supports Archive of Transfeminist Activism in Argentina

Stephanie Kirk, director of the Center for the Humanities and professor of Hispanic studies, along with collaborators Paola B. Ehrmantraut (University of St. Thomas) and Ivanna Aguilera (National University of Córdoba), has been awarded a $25,000 ACLS Digital Justice Seed Grant to support a pilot project that will create a bilingual digital archive documenting transfeminist activism in Córdoba, Argentina.

The project brings together US based feminist scholars and Argentine activists, scholars and community organizations to preserve materials related to twenty-first century transfeminist movements while developing a new model for ethical, community-centered digital archiving. The archive will serve as both a platform for collective memory and a tool for strengthening trans and gender-dissident communities whose histories are often marginalized or erased.

The project is also supported by staff from WashU Libraries, including Mapping LGBTQ St. Louis, 1945–1992 co-director and Curator of Local History Miranda Rectenwald, and the Data Services team. The project team will work with Rectenwald who has experience with LGBTQ+ focused archives that are built in dialogue with community partners. The project will also benefit from the broader Data Services team at Wash U Libraries, who have expertise in supporting faculty with digital humanities projects and open source programs.

Built using Mukurtu CMS, an open-source platform designed for community stewardship of digital heritage, the archive is expected to include zines, photographs, videos, oral testimonies, manifestos, artwork and social media content.

Read more on the Center for the Humanities website.