Sarah from English at Queen’s:
I am currently helping to manage a larger project that surrounds my dissertation on Zimbabwean writer Yvonne Vera, whose personal papers I archived during my masters degree in the Public Texts program at Trent University. Rooted in theory about personal archives and postmodern African writing, I am interested in developing archival practices that challenge the economy of transactionality that archival practice enshrines, and in the case of Yvonne Vera, in opening up her archives to her complex articulation of documentation, belonging, and possession. I am currently in the process of facilitating the creation of an Yvonne Vera website that will build a foundation upon which various projects may be developed; however, the initial goal of the website is to make the archival material available to scholars. THATCamp offers me an opportunity to gain insight about collaborative project management and strategies for accessing skills and digital tools.
