Abstract
In recent years, more and more communities, including colleges and universities, across the United States are challenging the existence of memorials associated with the Confederacy and white supremacy. Archivists and special collections librarians are often called upon to provide historical context, and have the opportunity to engage their communities in productive and transformative discourses. As a case study, readers will learn about the Building and Places Names Evaluation process at Oregon State University; the process which included developing evaluation criteria, providing historical research assistance to scholars, designing a community engagement plan, and implementing a renaming process. Readers will be able to adapt the information learned to achieve successful evaluation processes within their own communities.
Author Biography
Natalia Fernández is an associate professor and the Curator and Archivist of the Oregon Multicultural Archives (OMA) and the OSU Queer Archives (OSQA) at the Oregon State University Special Collections and Archives Research Center. Fernández’s mission for directing the OMA and the OSQA is to work in collaboration with Oregon's African American, Asian American, Latinx, Native American, and OSU’s LGBTQ+ communities to support them in preserving their histories and sharing their stories. Her scholarship relates to her work as an archivist, specifically best practices for working with communities of color. Fernández has published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly, Journal of Western Archives, The American Archivist, Multicultural Perspectives, and Archival Practice. Fernández holds an M.A. in Information Resources and Library Science from the University of Arizona (U of A). She graduated from the U of A Knowledge River Program, a program that focuses on community-based librarianship and partnerships with traditionally underserved communities.
Recommended Citation
Fernández, Natalia M.
(2019)
"When Building Namesakes Have Ties to White Supremacy: A Case Study of Oregon State University’s Building Names Evaluation Process,"
Journal of Western Archives: Vol. 10:
Iss.
1, Article 5.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26077/b38e-e3dd
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/westernarchives/vol10/iss1/5
