About the Project
Funded by the Ford Foundation, the University of Arizona’s Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry (CCI) and UA Libraries’ Special Collections (UALSC) are collaborating as the Archival Partner with dozens of U.S.-Mexico borderlands artists, advocates, journalists, and cultural practitioners to build and activate a digital archive of projects aimed at Reclaiming the Border Narrative, advancing migrant justice and addressing gaps in the archival record.
The Reclaiming the Border Narrative Digital Archive will house projects that illuminate dignity, joy, resilience, resistance, beauty, sorrow, humor, love, and everything in between and, in the process, expose and transcend colonial narratives and externally imposed perspectives of the U.S.-Mexico border. Preserving and providing access to this wide range of portrayals will symbolically and materially legitimize the diversity and multidimensionality of U.S.-Mexico borderlands narratives. It will serve as a mirror facilitating greater self-knowledge and sense of wholeness for borderlands and immigrant communities and offer fertile inspiration for future research, art, storytelling, activism, and policy advocacy for migrant and border justice.
This project is another way in which UALSC and CCI are fulfilling and advancing the UArizona Hispanic Serving Institution mission and Strategic Plan’s Border Lab initiative to further consolidate and galvanize the university’s network of border scholars and position UArizona as a leading institution for border studies. Examples of this include UALSC’s Digital Borderlands project and The Documented Border open access digital archive, as well as CCI’s Fronteridades art, storytelling and research programming. By spotlighting the experiences and creative and intellectual processes of these communities in sustainable ways, the Reclaiming the Border Narrative Digital Archive not only acknowledges them but centers them as fundamental to the advancement of our institutions of higher learning.
Leadership Team
Javier Duran
Director, Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry
Verónica Reyes-Escudero
Katheryne B. Willock Head of Special Collections, University Libraries
Megan Senseney
Department Head, Research Engagement, University Libraries
Yadira Caballero
Office & Program Manager, Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry
Michelle Ceballos
Outreach Coordinator, Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry
Lorenia Diaz
Project Manager, Special Collections, University Libraries
Alba Fernandez-Keys
Assistant Librarian, Borderlands Curator, Special Collections, University Libraries
Bianca Finley Alper
Digital Project Archivist, Special Collections, University Libraries
Richard Whitmer
Web Designer, Special Collections, University Libraries
Project Team
Erika Castaño
Assistant Librarian & Archivist, Special Collections, University Libraries
Lisa Duncan
Collections Management Archivist, Special Collections, University Libraries
Stacey Erdman
Associate Librarian/Digital Preservation Unit Lead, Digital Preservation & Production Collection Services, University Libraries
Randi Leigh Johnson
Library Information Associate, Special Collections, University Libraries
Lauren Washuk
Digitization Services and Lab Manager, Digital Preservation & Production Collection Services, University Libraries
Project Consultants
Aengus Anderson
Oral Historian / Digital Media Producer, Marketing & Communications, Administration, University Libraries
Ellen Dubinsky
Scholarly Communication Librarian / Scholarly Communication unit lead, University Libraries
Kenya Johnson
Director, Marketing Communications and Events, University Libraries
Barbie Lopez
Digital Accessibility Consultant, Disability Resource Center
Angela Martinez
Communications & Events Coordinator, Confluencenter for Creative Inquiry
Trent Purdy
Assistant Librarian & Archivist, Trent Purdy, University Libraries
Resources Team
Ginger Bidwell
Service Lead, Technology Strategy & Services, University Libraries
Steven Chang
Department Head, Technology Strategy & Services, University Libraries
Mike Hagedon
Development Lead, Technology Strategy & Services, University Libraries
Teresa Hazen
Department Head, Collection Services, University Libraries
David Mayhew
Operations Manager, Technology Strategy & Services, University Libraries
Elia Nazarenko
Platforms Lead, Technology Strategy & Services, University Libraries
Anthony Sanchez
Associate Librarian/Research Incubator Unit Lead, Project Coordinator, Research Engagement, University Libraries
Alana Varner
Project Coordinator, Research Engagement, University Libraries
Partners
