Queer Archives: The Work of Critical Cataloging and Queer Archival Labor
In collaboration with Dr. Jennifer Sichel, the Visual Resources Center is excited to host a panel discussion on critical cataloging, queer archives, and queer archival labor, featuring the following speakers presenting their work on research, publication, and practice: Marika Cifor, Assistant Professor in the Information School and an adjunct faculty member in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. Emily Drabinski, Interim Chief Librarian at the Graduate Center, City University of New YorkJosh Franco, National Collector at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art.
Following brief presentations by the panelists, we look forward to furthering the discussion with questions from the audience. The panel will be moderated by Jennifer Sichel, Preceptor & Lecturer, MA Program in the Humanities, University of Chicago, and Bridget Madden, Associate Director of the Visual Resources Center, Department of Art History, University of Chicago.
Marika Cifor is an Assistant Professor in the Information School and an adjunct faculty member in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies at the University of Washington. She is a feminist scholar of archival studies and digital studies. Cifor is the author of the forthcoming book, Viral Cultures: Activist Archiving in the Age of AIDS (University of Minnesota Press, 2022). Her research investigates how individuals and communities marginalized by gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, and HIV-status are represented and how they document and represent themselves and their social groups and movements in archives and digital cultures. This multidisciplinary scholarship uncovers how archives and digital technologies and cultures are shaping identities, experiences, and social movements.
Emily Drabinski is Interim Chief Librarian at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She edits Gender and Sexuality in Information Studies, a book series from Library Juice Press/Litwin Books. Drabinski has published and presented widely on topics related to power and resource description and organization in libraries.
Josh T Franco is an art historian currently based in Washington, DC. His dissertation, "Marfa, Marfa: Minimalism, rasquachismo, and Questioning 'Decolonial Aesthetics' in Far West Texas," was completed in the Art History department at Binghamton University in 2016. Franco’s graduate work was supported by the Clifford D. Clark Graduate Fellowship, the Imagining America PAGE (Publicly Active Graduate Education) Fellowship, and the Ithaca College Pre-Doctoral Diversity Fellowship.
Franco currently serves as National Collector at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art. As National Collector, he works to identify, investigate, and acquire personal papers, institutional records and other primary sources that tell the stories of American art. In addition to ensuring their preservation at the Smithsonian, Franco advises researchers working in the Archives, making them aware of materials relevant to their pursuits. He also advises early and mid-career artists on planning for the future of their personal papers. Previously, Franco served as Latino Collections Specialist at the Archives of American Art from 2015 to 2017. From 2013 to 2015, he was an Artist-Guide at Judd Foundation, 101 Spring Street, the preserved New York home and studio of artist Donald Judd.
The event will be held Monday, May 10 from 4:10–5:20pm CST. Register here to receive the Zoom link. Registration is open to the public, with priority registration given to UChicago students, instructors, and practitioners. Registration will be capped at 100 attendees.
Auto captioning will be available during the session, please email the VRC at visualresources@uchicago.edu if you require any additional accommodations.
Image: James Van Der Zee, Beau of the Ball, 1926.