As part of our programming, the CREATE Center helps introduce graduate students to diverse research methods that promote community-based research and the meaningful and empowering engagement of community members. CREATE postdoctoral fellows have made important contributions to this effort.

During the 2020-2021 academic year, CREATE Postdoctoral Fellow and interdisciplinary critical historian, Dr. Kimberly Ransom, designed and led a three-day workshop where she taught ethnohistorical methods to doctoral students and early career faculty members across education, sociology, English, and anthropology. CREATE’s graduate student intern, Ilana Spencer, supported Dr. Kim’s workshop and facilitation. 

The workshop was designed to help students and early career faculty become acquainted with ethnohistorical methodology and ways to partner with community members to engage in archival activism. A form of archival activism involves analyzing and leveraging materials found in archives and other historical and community spaces to unsilence marginalized pasts. Upon completion of the summer 2021 CREATE workshop, participants better understood how to incorporate such creative and empowering qualitative practice of data collection and analysis into their own research projects. Below we link additional information and resources regarding community-engaged ethnohistory methodology that we invite viewers to explore.