Abstract
This talk by Ashlynn Prasad will focus on donor relations and the difficulties that may arise when trying to enact principles of antiracism and decolonization. Ashlynn will share details of an experience she had at the outset of her first full-time, permanent position as an archivist, in which her attempt to create an antiracist description for a new acquisition drew complaints from the donors of the materials. Ashlynn will share her experience and discuss the process of communicating with the donors, why she felt it was important to be firm while remaining empathetic to the donors’ wishes, and how the situation was ultimately resolved to the satisfaction of all parties.
Speaker Bio
Ashlynn Prasad is a colonial-settler of Indian descent and is grateful to live on the ancestral and unceded territories of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples. She is the descendent of Indian farmers who were brought to Fiji under British colonial rule as indentured servants. Her research interests include the impacts of colonization on diaspora populations and the ways in which the forced destruction of archival records and/or poor recordkeeping practices on the part of colonizers can shape a population’s shared identity. Ashlynn began her career in archives at the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2013. She was a 2017-2019 ARL/SAA Mosaic Fellow and graduated with a dual MAS/MLIS from UBC in 2020. She has been the Librarian & Archivist at the Vancouver Maritime Museum since March 2021. She currently volunteers as the ACA Social Media Team lead.
About the Series
The IBPOC Voices Speaker Series is a series jointly hosted by the UBC School of Information and IDEAS@UBC. Held in place of the school’s usual in-person colloquium, the series offers a platform for IBPOC information professionals to share their valuable experience and research on a range of topics related to library, archival and information studies.
iSchool Students of the Global Majority 
Leave a comment