Michelle Caswell

Michelle Caswell is an American archivist and academic known for her work regarding community archives and approaches to archival practice rooted in anti-racism and anti-oppression. She is an associate professor of archival studies in the Department of Information Studies at University of California, Los Angeles and is the director of the school's Community Archives Lab.

Michelle Caswell
Born	Chicago
Nationality	American
Awards	Waldo Gifford Leland Award (2015) Hugh A. Taylor Prize (2020)
Academic background
Education	Columbia University Harvard University University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee University of Wisconsin-Madison
Academic work
Institutions	University of California, Los Angeles
Website	michellecaswell.org

Career

Caswell completed a B.A. in religion at Columbia University and an M.A. in world religions at Harvard University.^[1] Pursuing an interest in South Asian culture, she took courses focusing on related communities. In an 2018 interview with the Archives and Records Association, she explained: "I thought that I might be a professor of South Asian studies or religious studies, but coming from a working-class background, I had no guidance or role model to help pick a profession."^[2] Following graduation, she worked in marketing and fundraising positions before decided to pursue a career in the information sciences.^[2] She obtained an MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a PhD at the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.^[3][1]

Caswell worked part-time at the University of Chicago as assistant bibliographer for South Asia while taking MLIS courses, where she met Samip Mallick.^[2] Together they founded the South Asian American Digital Archive, a post-custodial digital repository for materials related to the South Asian community in the United States, in 2008.^[4][5][6]

Following her PhD studies, Caswell was hired by department of information studies at the University of California, Los Angeles.^[2] An associate professor of archival studies, she teaches courses related to archival theory and practice with a focus on social justice, human rights, and community archives.^[3] She is also the director of the UCLA Community Archives Lab.^[7] As part of a course assignment she and a group of students developed a visual resource for dismantling white supremacy in archives.^[8][9] Courtney Dean, Head of the Center for Primary Research and Training at UCLA, referred to Caswell's work in this area as "sea change in the profession."^[10]

Caswell's 2014 book, Archiving the Unspeakable: Silence, Memory, and the Photographic Record in Cambodia examined the legacy of the Khmer Rouge.^[11][12] It was awarded the Society of American Archivists' Waldo Gifford Leland Award in 2015 with the review committee noting it "succeeds in its mission to 'challenge archivists to embrace their own power to counter the silences embedded in records, particularly records that document human rights abuse'."^[13] In 2017, she was awarded the SAA's Fellows' Ernst Posner Award, with co-authors Marika Cifor and Mario H. Ramirez, for their article "To Suddenly Discover Yourself Existing: Uncovering the Impact of Community Archives".^[14] Caswell's contributions to the profession have also been recognized by the Association of Canadian Archivists. She and co-authors Gracen Brilmyer, Joyce Gabiola and Jimmy Zavala, were awarded the 2020 Hugh A. Taylor Prize for their article "Reciprocal Archival Imaginaries: The Shifting Boundaries of "Community" in Community Archives".^[15] She also gave the plenary address at the 2020 ACA conference.^[16][17]

Select publications

• Caswell, Michelle (2021), Urgent Archives: Enacting Liberatory Memory Work, Routledge (published 31 May 2021), ISBN 9780367427276
• Caswell, Michelle; Cifor, Marika; Ramirez, Mario H. (1 June 2016). ""To Suddenly Discover Yourself Existing": Uncovering the Impact of Community Archives". The American Archivist. 79 (1): 56–81. doi:10.17723/0360-9081.79.1.56. ISSN 0360-9081.
• Caswell, Michelle (2020). "Dusting for Fingerprints: Introducing Feminist Standpoint Appraisal". Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies. 3.
• Brilmyer, Gracen; Gabiola, Joyce; Zavala, Jimmy; Caswell, Michelle (14 November 2019). "Reciprocal Archival Imaginaries: The Shifting Boundaries of "Community" in Community Archives". Archivaria. 88 (Fall 2019): 6–48. ISSN 1923-6409.

References

1. "Building the Future of Archival Education and Research". aeri.gseis.ucla.edu. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
2. Chilcott, Alicia (17 August 2018). "How I Started – Michelle Caswell". Off the Record. Archives & Records Association. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
3. "Michelle Caswell". gseis.ucla.edu. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
4. Caswell, M. L. (November 2014). "Seeing Yourself in History: Community Archives in the Fight Against Symbolic Annihilation". The Public Historian. 36 (4): 26–37. doi:10.1525/tph.2014.36.4.26. S2CID 147369425.
5. Caswell, Michelle; Cole, Harrison; Griffith, Zachary (2018). "Images, Silences, and the Archival Record: An Interview with Michelle Caswell". DisClosure. 27. doi:10.13023/disclosure.27.04.
6. Harmon, Joanie (18 January 2019). "Michelle Caswell: Exploring the History of South Asian Americans in California". ampersand.gseis.ucla.edu. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
7. "About – Community Archives Lab UCLA". Retrieved 12 January 2021.
8. "Archives for Black Lives in Philadelphia: Anti-racist description resources" (PDF). Archives for Black Lives. October 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
9. Caswell, Michelle (July 2017). "Teaching to Dismantle White Supremacy in Archives". The Library Quarterly. 87 (3): 222–235. doi:10.1086/692299. ISSN 0024-2519. S2CID 148870860.
10. Dean, Courtney (Summer 2019). "Redescribing Japanese AmericanI Collectionat UCLA" (PDF). Descriptive Notes: 6–8.
11. Jimerson, Randall C. (2015). "Review of Archiving the Unspeakable: Silence, Memory, and the Photographic Record in Cambodia, Critical Human Rights series". The American Archivist. 78 (1): 265–268. doi:10.17723/0360-9081.78.1.265. ISSN 0360-9081. JSTOR 43489617.
12. Vann, Michael G. (2014). "Book Review: Archiving the Unspeakable: Silence, Memory, and the Photographic Record in Cambodia". The Public Historian. 36 (3): 158–160. doi:10.1525/tph.2014.36.3.158. ISSN 0272-3433. JSTOR 10.1525/tph.2014.36.3.158.
13. "Waldo Gifford Leland Award: Michelle Caswell". www2.archivists.org. Society of American Archivists. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
14. "Fellows' Ernst Posner Award". www2.archivists.org. Retrieved 11 January 2021.
15. "2020 Archivaria Awards". archivaria.ca. 24 June 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2021.
16. Caswell, Michelle (22 November 2020). "Feeling Liberatory Memory Work". Archivaria. 90 (Fall 2020): 148–164. ISSN 1923-6409.
17. Lonie, Emily (25 June 2020). "Association of Canadian Archivists - ACA 2020 The Online Version - Reflection". www.archivists.ca. Retrieved 12 January 2021.