The Modern Endangered Archive Program’s reach expands

The UCLA Library’s Modern Endangered Archives Program recently funded 28 new digitization and documentation projects, selected from among 110 applications. The new projects make up the program’s fourth cohort, bringing the Arcadia(opens in a new tab)-funded program’s portfolio to 88 active projects, with work now ongoing in 46 countries around the world.

11 of these collections are now available in the MEAP Digital Library, featuring over 12,000 objects to explore. Collection highlights include:

• Organizational publications from Memoria Abierta in Argentina documenting the work of activists to denounce and end human rights violations during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship

• Graphic art, animation stills, and promotional materials from the Albanian Film Archive representing the unique cultural expression of Albania during a period of global isolation and heavy censorship

• News footage from the Dominican Republic (1965 to 1980) reflecting the role of local television during periods of political upheaval including civil war and U.S. intervention in 1965 and more.

The latest projects will preserve archival material across these subjects areas, strengthening the MEAP collection with materials focused on human rights and ecological activism in Latin America, African photography, the history of film, and the lived experience of minority communities across the globe. The new cohort also will also expand the program’s scope by documenting and preserving collections that highlight architectural history and the record of built environments, global political movements, and socio-environmental change.

PROJECT GRANTS

Digital preservation and access to rare negatives and slides at the Center for Art and Archaeology of the American Institute of Indian Studies (India)
Host Institution: American Institute of Indian Studies
Project lead: Dr Vandana Sinha, Center for Art and Archaeology, American Institute of Indian Studies

The forgotten life and papers of Alejandro C. Del Conte (Argentina)
Host Institution: CIFHA / Fundación Centro de Investigación Fotográfico Histórico Argentino
Project Leads: Alfredo Srur, Fundación Centro de Investigación Fotográfico Histórico Argentino; Andrea Laura Cuarterolo, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Priscila Miraz de Freitas Grecco, Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia (UFRB), Brazil.

Bailey History Archive, 1951-1980 (South Africa)
Host Institution: Photography Legacy Project
Project Lead: Paul Weinberg is the Curator at the Photography Legacy Project

From Black Power to Pan-Africanism: The Kwame Ture Archive (Guinea)
Host Institution: Kwame Ture Foundation
Project Leads: Bokar Ture, Kwame Ture Foundation; Chris Martinez, UCLA

Preserving Tijuana’s culturo-historical archives, 1950 – 2019 (Mexico)
Host Institution: San Diego State University
Project Leads: Jessica Barlow, San Diego State University (Sage Project); Lisa Lamont, San Diego State University (Center for Latin American Studies); Kristofer Patrón-Soberano, San Diego State University (Sage Project)

Bengali music in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, 1908-1989 (India)
Host Institution: Chandi Charan Saha Foundation of Archives and Museum (Kolkata, India)
Project Leads: Sovan Lal Saha, Chandi Charan Saha Foundation; Abhijit Bhattacharya, Chandi Charan Saha Foundation

The University of the West Indies Library of the Spoken Word Collection, 1953 – 2013 (Jamaica)
Host Institution: University of the West Indies
Project Lead: Charlene Riley, University of the West Indies

The Biobío legacy: Mapuche-Pehuenche organizing and resistance, 1990-2012 (Chile)
Host Institution: ONG Camino de Tierra
Project Lead: Cristian Opaso, ONG Camino de Tierra

Recovering Chinese religious printed materials in Central Java (Indonesia)
Host Institution: University of Gadjah Mada
Project Lead: Evi Lina Sutrisno, Center for Religious and Cross-Cultural Studies, University of Gadjah Mada; Rezza Maulana, State Islamic University Sunan Kalijaga

SOS: Please help us rescue Guinea-Bissau’s sound archives! (1963-1974)
Host Institution: Cal State Bakersfield
Project Leads: Mustafah Dhada, Cal State Bakersfield (CSUB); Sandra Araújo, Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal; João Bernardo Vieira, Member of Parliment, Guinea-Bissau

Archives of minority pasts: Mapping religion and politics in modern Bengal, 1904-2020 (India)
Host Institution: Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
Project Leads: Rajarshi Ghose, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta; Abhijit Bhattacharya, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta; Tapan Paul, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.

Photography in the Willis Bell Archive, 1957-1978 (Ghana)
Host Institution: Mmofra Foundation
Project Lead: Amowi Phillips, Mmofra Foundation

Superochistas: collective, amateur and independent Uruguayan cinema, 1970-1985
Host Institution: Cine Casero (Uruguay)
Project Lead: Felipe Bellocq, Cine Casero; Carolina Curti, Cine Casero; Macarena Fernandez, Cine Casera; Julieta Keldjian, Cine Casero

Archives for justice and peace: The Project for the Recovery of Historical Memory (REMHI) and the National Reconciliation Commission (CNR), 1973-2021 (Guatemala)
Host Institution: Oficina de Derechos Humanos del Arzobispado de Guatemala
Project Lead: Nery Estuardo Rodenas Paredes, Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHAG); Carlos Alberto Alarcon Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHAG); Sandra Patricia Ogaldes Madrid Human Rights Office of the Archdiocese of Guatemala (ODHAG).

PLANNING GRANTS

Conservation and digitization of archival materials at the Cham Cultural Research Center, 1950-1999 (Vietnam)
Host Institution: Service for Tourism and Culture Conservation of Quang Nam
Project Lead: Danh Dong, Cham Cultural Research Center (Vietnam)

Mohi Eldin Ellabbad personal archive, 1950-2010 (Egypt)
Host Institution: AFAC (Arab Fund for Arts and Culture)
Project Leads: Mahmoud el Hossieny, Design Repository (Egypt); Ahmed Ellabbad, Independent Researcher (Egypt)

Building memory in Casablanca, 1917-1980 (Morocco)
Host Institution: Association Mémoire des Architectes Modernes Marocains (MAMMA)
Project Leads: Lahbib Elmoumni, École d’architecture de Casablanca; Imad Dahmani, École d’architecture de Casablanca; Johanna Sluiter, New York University

Visual History of the Tamil Film Industry through a photographic collection of R.N. Nagaraja Rao, 1950-1985 (India)
Host Institution: French Institute of Pondicherry
Project Leads: Madhavan Pillai; Visalakshi Vassoudevayar

Digitization of audio recordings of ethnography of the Igbo People, 1972-1983 (Nigeria)
Hosts Institution: Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Project Leads: Chima Korieh, Marquette University (U.S.); Ozioma Onuzulike, University of Nigeria; Nkiru Ohia, Institute of African Studies, University of Nigeria

Synthesis: Félix Beltrán’s visual language for a revolution, 1963-2000 (Mexico)
Host Institution: [NAME] Publications
Project Leads: Natalia Zuluaga, [NAME] Publications; Gean Moreno, [NAME] Publications; Carla Lamoyi, Fiebre Ediciones (Mexico)

The Maulana Bhashani archives, 1920-1976 (Bangladesh)
Host Institution: Queen Mary, University of London
Project Leads: Layli Uddin, Queen Mary, University of London

Archiving Tamil fish workers in print, 1960-2022 (India)
Host Institution: French Institute of Pondicherry
Project Leads: Arunkumar A.S.

Archives of the Union of Teachers of Burkina Faso, 1949-2014
Host Institution: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, France)
Project Leads: Ophelie Rillon, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Siaka Traoré, Syndicat National des Enseignants Africains du Burkina (Burkina Faso)

Conserving and digitizing documents from the indigenous Maya movement of Belize, 1995-2005
Host Institution: Belize Archives and Records Service (BARS)
Project Leads: Kevin Montero, Belize Archives and Records Service; Joel Wainwright, Ohio State University

A Caribbean seafaring people from eastern Venezuela: The Guaiqueri Archive, 1950-2021
Host Institution: University of Cambridge
Project Leads: Oliver Antcza, University of Cambridge; Fidel Rodríguez Velásquez, Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio).

Saving South Africa’s Truth & Reconciliation Commission’s video collection
Host Institution: Foundation for Human Rights (South Africa)
Project Leads: David Forbes, Foundation for Human Rights (South Africa)

Digitizing and georeferencing the archives of the Niterói Herbarium (NIT): Mapping socio-environmental change, 1977 – Present (Brazil)
Host Institution: Herbário de Niterói, Universidade Federal Fluminense (UFF)
Project Leads: Arno Fritz Das Neves Brandes, Universidade Federal Fluminense; Adriana Quintella Lobão, Universidade Federal Fluminense; Chris N. Lesser, University of California, Berkeley

Revolutionary legacies: The Amilcar Cabral and Aristides Pereira papers, 1950s-1990s (Cabo Verde)
Host Institution: Fundação Amílcar Cabral
Project Leads: Luis Fonseca, Amílcar Cabral Foundation; Desmond Fonseca, UCLA