DivE-In Encourages You to Take 5

Guest post by Alex Marsh, Digitization Specialist

Every month, the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Council (DivE-In) of the Duke University Libraries recommends five free activities, programs, and educational opportunities that address diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. For more about diversity initiatives at the Duke University Libraries, visit our website.


1) Now through 11/03, prepare to VOTE! @ North Carolina State Board of Elections. Voting is one of the most powerful ways to make your voice heard as a citizen, and this fall’s election is right around the corner. Are you registered to vote at your current address? If you plan to vote from home, have you requested your mail-in absentee ballot? (No special circumstance or reason is required to vote by mail in North Carolina). If you plan to vote early, in person, do you know the scheduled dates and locations for early voting in your county? Can you help out as an election worker? (There’s a critical shortage this year. You get money, PPE, and social distancing guidelines will be enforced). Deadlines, FAQs, online forms and more here: https://www.ncsbe.gov

2) Wednesday, 09/02, 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm: Reclaiming the Ancestors: Indigenous and Black Perspectives on Repatriation, Human Rights and Justice @ Zoom Webinar. Today, more than 100,000 Native American ancestral remains are still held in U.S. public museums alone, while an unknown number of remains of people of African descent are stored in museum collections. What does it mean to turn human beings into artifacts? What happens to the living communities who lose control and ownership over their own ancestors and heritage? This panel will discuss how repatriation–the process of reclaiming and returning ancestral and human remains–can address inequality. Presented by the Wenner-Gren Foundation. Register here: https://tinyurl.com/y6svx8dq

3) Thursday, 09/03, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm: Screening Race: Short Films of the 1960s & 1970s @ Twitch TV. Inspired by the recently-published collection of essays, “Screening Race in American Nontheatrical Film,” NC State Film Studies Professor Marsha Gordon; University of Chicago Cinema and Media Studies Professor Allyson Nadia Field; Ina Archer, Artist and Media Conservator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture; and Skip Elsheimer of A/V Geeks will present a digitized selection of short 16mm films from the 1960s and 1970s engaged with the topic of race. Presented by Duke Cinematic Arts. https://tinyurl.com/y6guersn

4) Tuesday, 09/08, 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm: Race, Power, and Curation: Launching the Black Women’s Suffrage Digital Collection @ Zoom Webinar. This event will feature a keynote by Dorothy Berry, the Digital Collections Program Manager at Houghton Library, Harvard University, on the importance of curating Black Collections and centering Black Stories intentionally during this transitory period of American history. In addition, Elaine L. Westbrooks, DPLA board member and Vice Provost of University Libraries and University Librarian at UNC-Chapel Hill, will provide opening remarks on the impact of curatorial choices, and Yusef Omowale of the Southern California Digital Library will join us to talk about digitizing the Charlotta Bass papers. Register here: https://tinyurl.com/y5ynjxze

5) Words of Light on the Streets of Disobedience in Bombay, 1930-1931 @ YouTube. On the occasion of World Photography Day, the Alkazi Foundation is pleased to announce its collaborative project with the Department of History, Duke University, on a rare album “Collections of Photographs of Old Congress Party- K.L. Nursey.” As part of the ongoing research, this short clip features Prof. Sumathi Ramaswamy (James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of History, Duke University) and Avrati Bhatnagar (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, Duke University) providing an overview of this unpublished album. The album taken by an as-yet unidentified photographer takes us into the heart of the action, allowing us to get a feel for the energy and enthusiasm of disobedience, in 1930s India. https://tinyurl.com/y3zxdgn7