Established at UT Austin in 2015, the Black Diaspora Archive (BDA) is a collaborative project between Black Studies, LLILAS Benson Latin American Studies and Collections, UT Libraries, and the Office of the President. The BDA exists to collect, preserve, and make accessible research collections created by and about communities from across the Americas and the Caribbean. Archiving Black América (ABA) is a LLILAS Benson initiative that promotes and supports both new and ongoing scholarly work at UT.
The ABA-BDA Acquisitions Award provides UT Austin graduate students engaged in research and/or community development work with supplemental funding to support travel that develops archival collections.
Collection materials acquired or created using ABA-BDA funds can include, but are not limited to: artwork (unframed), posters, catalogs, artist books, newspapers, journals, magazines, print media, independently or locally published written work, photographs, historical documents, oral histories, ephemera, and recorded performances. Please note:
- Publications should not duplicate items already available in UT Libraries and listed in the UT Libraries catalog.
- Recorded interviews and/or performances must be accompanied by written transcripts and participant agreement documentation.
- Digital photographs must be a minimum of 1,200 pixels on the shortest side. Digitized images must be a minimum of 300 dpi.
See below for more information on past awardees and collections:
Camille Carr (LLILAS MA ’24) Scenes of Black Life and Cultural Expression in the Colombian Pacific and the 2024 exhibition, Spirit of Viche
Ana Luiza Biazeto (LLILAS PhD student) Dias de Visita/Visiting Days: Strategies for Connections, Affections and Black Encounters in Latin America’s Largest Women’s Penitentiary and the 2025 Tex Libris blog post “Visiting Days”: An Archive of Family Care at São Paulo’s Larges Women’s Prison