Travis Wagner presentation
Travis Wagner will present "Curating Queer Embodiment for Digital Futures."
Abstract: This talk focuses on the evolution of research around the impact of queerness within the intersecting practices of archival description, digital curation, and pedagogical praxis. By focusing on the rich yet complex challenges of producing LGBTQIA+ historiography, the talk focuses on practical and theoretical methods for approaching more inclusive representations of queer identity within archives and across cultural heritage institutions more broadly. In particular, the talk highlights research focused on approaches to addressing archiving inequities within practitioners’ spaces while looking toward community-centric models for digital curation rooted within community-centric and participatory archiving models. Further, since the queer representation within archives extends beyond descriptive challenges alone, the talk centers on materials and methods for queer archiving. This centering highlights particular archival documents as inherently ‘queer’ and explores ongoing community practices for utilizing digital technologies to engage in non-institutional community archives work.
Bio: Travis L. Wagner received their Ph.D. in Information Science from the University of South Carolina's School of Information Science. Before joining UMD as a lecturer, they were postdoctoral fellows within the iSchool's Center for Archival Futures (CAFe) and the Recovery and Reuse of Archival Data (RRAD) Lab. Their primary research and teaching interests include critical information studies, queer archives, and LGBTQIA+ advocacy in sociotechnical systems. Their work investigates how queer and trans embodiment exists within and against information organization systems. Wagner's research examines how these communities produce and create identity in opposition to sociotechnical systems that limit and essentialize those identities. Additionally, Wagner works with various community organizations to build and maintain digital collections reflective of complex, often silenced histories. Wagner also collaborates with these collections and communities to explore archival pedagogy through service-learning classes that have worked with feminist activist organizations, queer media archives, and community arthouse theaters. Multiple projects within classrooms and community work have led to Wagner exploring and publishing the unique relationships between obsolete archival mediums and queer counter-historical work across archival contexts. Their recent publications include articles in the Journal of Information Science, Artifact & Apparatus, and the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association. They are also the co-creator of the Queer Cola Oral History and Digital Archive. They have spoken at multiple conferences and universities regarding outreach and engagement within the queer community about the work of information professionals.
Contact Christine Hopper for Zoom link.