Building and Researching Queer Community-Driven Archives in the Pacific Northwest

Relationality, Counter-Storytelling, and Self-Determination as Praxis

Authors

  • Josie Cohen-Rodriguez Washington State University
  • Lotus Norton-Wisla Washington State University

Abstract

This paper explores approaches to developing and sustaining queer community-driven archives. Authors utilize autoethnography, critical race theory, and critical archival studies, to interrogate institutional power structures and move towards more equitable and reciprocal learning models. The authors will outline the founding of the Washington State University Queer Archives through the reflexive process of developing guiding principles that center relationality, community-driven decision making, counter-storytelling, and self-determination for queer communities. Original research conducted at queer archives throughout western Oregon will be analyzed and discussed using structural, relational, and curatorial lenses. Lessons will be tied to reflecting on the role of memory work in queer communities and the role of archives towards queer cultural re/production.

Author Biographies

Josie Cohen-Rodriguez, Washington State University

Josie Cohen-Rodriguez is a Mexican/trans/queer abolitionist educator & consultant from the border towns of Yuma, Arizona and San Luis, Mexico. Currently, she is based between Portland, the Palouse prairie of eastern Washington and north Idaho where she is an educator and community organizer. As an educator, Josie has served as a consultant for universities, community organizers, non-profits, healthcare practitioners, and businesses on LGBTQIA+ inclusion, mutual aid development, and racial/economic justice through building equity oriented partnerships, curriculum, workshops, and events. She currently serves as the WSU LGBTQ+ Center’s Student Life & Community Coordinator & Instructor while also volunteering as a member of the Brokeback Palouse Collective, organizing towards recognizing the necessity for public queer-racial justice centered spaces and mutual-aid networks in rural communities. She is the co-founder of the WSU Intersectional Queer Archives Initiative, along with Lotus Norton-Wisla.

Lotus Norton-Wisla, Washington State University

Lotus Norton-Wisla is the Community Outreach Archivist for the Center for Digital Scholarship and Curation (CDSC) and the Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections (MASC) department at the Washington State University Pullman Libraries. Her work centers on relationship-building, digital collections stewardship, and education with interests in supporting partnerships at WSU, with Indigenous nations, and community-driven archives efforts. She supports outreach and collaboration, including co-founding the WSU Queer Archives Initiative with Josie Cohen-Rodriguez, and supporting the Plateau Peoples’ Web Portal. Lotus is a queer white cis woman originally from northern Wisconsin, and currently lives in Eastern Washington as a settler on the homelands of the Nimíipuu (Nez Perce Tribe) and Palus people. She has worked with colleagues at Indigenous nations as they steward materials and knowledge in their communities, most recently as a volunteer for the Indigenizing Archival Training.

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Published

2024-09-18

Issue

Vol. 10 (2024)

Section

Research Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2024 Lotus Norton-Wisla, Josie Cohen-Rodriguez

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