During the hot summer months of 2020, especially in the weeks following the May 25th killing of George Floyd while in police custody, the Magnum Photos, Inc. Photography Collection was often on my mind. The scenes of protest that we witnessed, in countless cities across the United States and the world, reminded me of the iconic Civil Rights Movement images that Magnum’s photographers created. Burt Glinn in 1957 Little Rock, Eve Arnold at the 1961 Black Muslim rally, Danny Lyon at 1963 SNCC sit-ins, Leonard Freed at the 1963 March on Washington, Bruce Davidson at the 1965 Selma march: These images, and many more, documented the epic Black struggle to achieve greater social justice, a struggle that so obviously continues. [Read more…] about The camera as a weapon against racial injustice: Eli Reed’s Black In America
Archives for 2020
DARE TO RESEARCH: Diversity Awards for Research Engagement
by JIM KUHN
This essay is part of a slow research series, What is Research?
The Harry Ransom Center’s “What Is Research” project ran from 2019-2020. The corresponding “DARE To Research” award was a one-time activity, funded at that time by the University of Texas at Austin Division of Diversity and Community Engagement.
The Harry Ransom Center’s collections are vast. Constantly growing with new acquisitions, our holdings include nearly 1 million books, more than 42 million manuscripts, 5 million photographs, and 100,000 works of art. When an item enters our collections, many activities need to happen before a researcher can encounter that material, before it is paged to the reading and viewing room, or before reference images can be provided as digital surrogates. [Read more…] about DARE TO RESEARCH: Diversity Awards for Research Engagement
The passion to push the paradigm
by DANIEL ARBINO
This essay is part of a slow research series, What is Research?
As a librarian at the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at The University of Texas at Austin, I have been fortunate to carry values from my personal research journey and apply them to collection development and instruction. On a daily basis, I engage with researchers—faculty, students, scholars, and artists from Latin America and across the globe—whose own research journeys may begin years before they step through our door. [Read more…] about The passion to push the paradigm