While participatory digital methods for conducting archival research and practice have contributed in meaningful ways to discourses on rebalancing power asymmetries in archival partnerships between academics and communities, this work has yet to effectively disrupt the status quo. Using a transdisciplinary approach I reflect on my first-hand experiences working in partnership with U.S. Latin American and Caribbean diasporic groups on personal digital memory projects as an active member and founder of ImaginX en Movimiento (IXeM) Memory Collective and draw on women of color feminism, Indigenous perspectives, and anti-colonial/decolonial theories that reflect the embodiment of memory to offer an alternative methodological tool for regenerating community-academic archival partnerships. Building on these various bodies of knowledge, my dissertation demonstrates how a digital archives praxis rooted in relationality can help transform structural power dynamics in the archive. Most powerfully, it opens up space to imagine and enact alternative ways of being together that allow for collective liberation. While academic-community partnerships will always remain entangled in issues of power, authority, and control, there are possibilities to further equity and justice through a digital archives praxis of relationality.
","abstract_html":"<p>While participatory digital methods for conducting archival research and practice have contributed in meaningful ways to discourses on rebalancing power asymmetries in archival partnerships between academics and communities, this work has yet to effectively disrupt the status quo. Using a transdisciplinary approach I reflect on my first-hand experiences working in partnership with U.S. Latin American and Caribbean diasporic groups on personal digital memory projects as an active member and founder of ImaginX en Movimiento (IXeM) Memory Collective and draw on women of color feminism, Indigenous perspectives, and anti-colonial/decolonial theories that reflect the embodiment of memory to offer an alternative methodological tool for regenerating community-academic archival partnerships. Building on these various bodies of knowledge, my dissertation demonstrates how a digital archives praxis rooted in relationality can help transform structural power dynamics in the archive. Most powerfully, it opens up space to imagine and enact alternative ways of being together that allow for collective liberation. While academic-community partnerships will always remain entangled in issues of power, authority, and control, there are possibilities to further equity and justice through a digital archives praxis of relationality.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Hicks-Alcaraz, Marisa"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Cultural Studies, PhD","degree_level":"Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation","degree_discipline":"School of Arts and Humanities","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["David-Luis Brown","JoAnna Poblete","Angela Aguayo"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2022,"date_issued":"2022-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2022-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:40:15Z","subjects":["Caribbean","community","diaspora","digital archives","Latin American","relationality"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/448","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["David-Luis Brown","JoAnna Poblete","Angela Aguayo"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Hicks-Alcaraz, Marisa"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2023-04-19T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["School of Arts and Humanities"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Cultural Studies, PhD"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Caribbean","community","diaspora","digital archives","Latin American","relationality"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/448"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["While participatory digital methods for conducting archival research and practice have contributed in meaningful ways to discourses on rebalancing power asymmetries in archival partnerships between academics and communities, this work has yet to effectively disrupt the status quo. Using a transdisciplinary approach I reflect on my first-hand experiences working in partnership with U.S. Latin American and Caribbean diasporic groups on personal digital memory projects as an active member and founder of ImaginX en Movimiento (IXeM) Memory Collective and draw on women of color feminism, Indigenous perspectives, and anti-colonial/decolonial theories that reflect the embodiment of memory to offer an alternative methodological tool for regenerating community-academic archival partnerships. Building on these various bodies of knowledge, my dissertation demonstrates how a digital archives praxis rooted in relationality can help transform structural power dynamics in the archive. Most powerfully, it opens up space to imagine and enact alternative ways of being together that allow for collective liberation. While academic-community partnerships will always remain entangled in issues of power, authority, and control, there are possibilities to further equity and justice through a digital archives praxis of relationality.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Digital Archives as Relationship-Building: Reflections on Worldmaking in Community-Based Latin American and Caribbean Diasporic Memory Work in Southern California"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["David-Luis Brown","JoAnna Poblete","Angela Aguayo"],"dc:creator":["Hicks-Alcaraz, Marisa"],"dc:date.available":["2023-04-19T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["While participatory digital methods for conducting archival research and practice have contributed in meaningful ways to discourses on rebalancing power asymmetries in archival partnerships between academics and communities, this work has yet to effectively disrupt the status quo. Using a transdisciplinary approach I reflect on my first-hand experiences working in partnership with U.S. Latin American and Caribbean diasporic groups on personal digital memory projects as an active member and founder of ImaginX en Movimiento (IXeM) Memory Collective and draw on women of color feminism, Indigenous perspectives, and anti-colonial/decolonial theories that reflect the embodiment of memory to offer an alternative methodological tool for regenerating community-academic archival partnerships. Building on these various bodies of knowledge, my dissertation demonstrates how a digital archives praxis rooted in relationality can help transform structural power dynamics in the archive. Most powerfully, it opens up space to imagine and enact alternative ways of being together that allow for collective liberation. While academic-community partnerships will always remain entangled in issues of power, authority, and control, there are possibilities to further equity and justice through a digital archives praxis of relationality.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/448"],"dc:subject":["Caribbean","community","diaspora","digital archives","Latin American","relationality"],"dc:title":["Digital Archives as Relationship-Building: Reflections on Worldmaking in Community-Based Latin American and Caribbean Diasporic Memory Work in Southern California"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["School of Arts and Humanities"],"thesis:degree_level":["Restricted to Claremont Colleges Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Cultural Studies, PhD"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:40:15Z"}