We have always been here : world-traveling and digital praxis in cuir and trans Latine community-based archives

Since the late 20th century, conceptions of archives and “the archive” have been contested and reimagined within the fields of Information Studies, Archival Studies, and the Humanities. The emerging field of critical archival studies has advanced understandings of archives that recognize the oppressive structures of cultural, political, and economic power that have shaped archival practice and the inclusion or exclusion of records in mainstream, institutional archives. Feminist, queer, and scholars of color have long critiqued and developed strategies to challenge the archival and historical silences experienced by those left out and obscured from dominant archives and historical narratives. Critical archival studies have turned to physical and digital community-based and grassroots archives as models for the liberatory power of memory work, but much of the current scholarship has focused solely on U.S.-based community archives. While this scholarship has provided useful frameworks to understand the potential of community archives beyond the recovery of history by looking to how memory work can shape and reshape communities themselves, scholarship has largely been focused on U.S.-based archives. This thesis turns to sociotechnical iterations of cuir (queer) and trans community archives based in Argentina and Honduras to build on existing scholarship in this field and acknowledge the ways in which cuir and trans Latine archivists, activists, artists, and memory workers develop and enact an archival praxis in the digital space. Drawing upon ideas of playfulness, “world”-traveling, and loving perception from feminist philosopher María Lugones, I argue that their archival praxis constitutes digital “worlds” that are accessed and traveled through vis-à-vis social media and online repositories, and in doing so, enact an activist ethos. Bridging Information Studies and queer theory, this thesis contributes to conversations about the digital archival turn by focusing on emerging cuir and trans archives in Latin America.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science in Information Studies

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Information Studies

Grantor

The University of Texas at Austin

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Aslo de la Torre, Melissa

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Cotera, María Eugenia, 1964-

Committee member dc:contributor.committeemember

• Edgar Gomez Cruz

• Critical archival studies
• Latin American studies
• Digital archives
• Queer theory
• Social media

Language dc:language.iso

English

Identifier URI

https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/58433

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repositories.lib.utexas.edu:2152/131087