Launched in 2019, the Multicultural Archive Project is the brainchild of Kathi Matsuura ’90, a Harvard librarian who splits her time between Japan and the U.S., and Chris Wilde ’88, co-founder of The Queer Zine Archive Project, who has documented much of the LGBTQIA+ history of the College. The archive is coordinated by Sarah Smith-Benanti, assistant director of alumni and donor relations, diverse communities, and Chris Jones, associate professor and archivist of the College.
The Multicultural Archive Project is a collaboration between students, alumni, staff, and faculty that establishes a digital platform for collecting and documenting the histories of Grinnell College’s rich legacy of multicultural student organizations. The main goals are to capture, preserve, and share the institutional memory that has gone undocumented, and to show the impact that multiculturalism has had in shaping the College’s history.
Timelines of Grinnell’s multicultural student organizations were created and digitally displayed during the 2019 Multicultural Reunion. After the decision was made to switch the 2021 Multicultural Reunion to a virtual format, Claire Burns ’23 came aboard as a Vivero Fellow to create the archive website, as a digital yearbook for alums: see video below.
Now it is your turn to become part of the archive by sharing your story stories.