Antiracist Pedagogy through Historical Archives: A Geographic Approach

Abstract

Undergraduate research with historical archives offers an engaged and rewarding way to expose students to historical geographic research methods. In combination with an antiracist pedagogical approach, students’ archival research provides pathways to better understand the racialized history of a place through a process that most find enjoyable. In this article, the author shares her experience teaching a geography course focused on local racial history in Louisville, Kentucky (United States) and discusses the types of archives-based assignments students complete. In addition, this article presents strategies that geographic educators could take to incorporate archival materials into their own courses.

Keywords:

• Archival research
• antiracist pedagogy
• black geographies
• historical geography
• undergraduate research

Acknowledgments

I am grateful for the thoughtful feedback received from Injeong Jo and to the anonymous reviewers whose input certainly helped strengthen the piece. Thanks to Araby Smyth, who provided detailed feedback on an earlier version of the paper and much needed moral support after it was initially rejected by another journal. Most importantly, I want to express my profound gratitude to the staff and faculty in UofL Archives and Special Collections, without whom much what I do at UofL would not be possible. In particular, I thank Delinda Buie, Tom Owen, Elizabeth Reilly, Heather Fox, Carrie Daniels, Rebecca Patillo (now at Duke), and everyone else from UofL ASC for helping my students and working with me as I constantly dream up new ideas for how to incorporate archival research into my classes.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Similar systems exist globally, however the focus here is on the US as this reflects the author’s experience.

2 The Race and Place course at UofL was originally created and taught by Priscilla McCutcheon, I took it over after Priscilla’s departure and my arrival in 2018.