SJ4A Grant Program
GRANT NAME: Training of Community-Embedded Social Justice Archivists also known as Archival Studies Social Justice Master’s Scholarship Program (SJ4). Funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ Laura Bush 21st Century Librarian Program – FY 2022 Guidelines (LB21) [RE-252356-OLS-22]. [August 2022 – July 2025]. Terminated April 8, 2025: President’s Executive Order 14238.
Recruitment flyer: Call for applications to the Archival Studies Social Justice Master’s Scholarship Program
The SJ4A Application essays are available here.
The SJ4A program in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama meets an urgent need for archivists to apply social justice competencies in an innovative program that combines work experience and community-embedded practice with graduate instruction and curriculum support in a master’s program (accredited by the American Library Association). It addresses current gaps in diversifying the workforce and operationalizing the how-to’s of social justice and social equity practice within galleries, libraries, archives, and museums while proposing systematic, intentional, action-oriented, community-engaged, and impact-driven education.
Program Goal
To recruit and train 12 community-embedded paraprofessional archivists who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) to get their master’s degree in the UA SLIS’ synchronous distance education program. SJ4A will provide support to BIPOC paraprofessionals working (part-time or full-time) in community-based archives-related settings while getting their graduate degree part-time. Students will begin their course of study in January 2023 and will complete their master’s degree in December 2024.
The SJ4A program has a significant research and evaluation component that constantly analyzes the effectiveness of students’ experiences in an ongoing manner as they develop tangible archival studies and social justice applications in their courses for their work environments. This includes collecting data on career choice and planning, academic success, professional growth and career development, professional association participation, and the graduates’ own assessment of their journey in the program throughout their period of study. Each SJ4A student’s experience and progress toward their individualized learning objectives and goals will be regularly evaluated during and at the end of each semester.
In addition, once SJ4A students graduate, monthly online meetings with the SJ4A faculty will help tracking of career development at their place of work. The cohort will form the SJ4A Alumni Committee to ensure the project’s sustainability (once funding is over) in integrating its goals, objectives, and activities in their workplace, careers, and with future students into the program.
Program Initiative
BIPOC archivist paraprofessionals living in their communities are in a strong position to integrate social justice principles of fairness, justice, equity, inclusiveness, empathy, and empowerment in developing information-based solutions that address their communities’ injustices while engaging with underserved populations and others.
The term archives-related agencies in the SJ4A refers to archival institutions and allied organizations, including state and public libraries, with archival facets to their institutional missions. It’s use is a response to developments over past decades in the placement/integration of archival studies (or archival sciences and archival education) with libraries (academic, public, school, special, library education) under the broader umbrella of “library and information science.”
Consequently, the primary target population in the SJ4A are future BIPOC archivists who are interested in extending their social justice competencies and include:
(1) paraprofessionals currently working in archival environments and pursuing archival careers;
(2) paraprofessionals working in library environments interested in pursuing careers in archives;
(3) paraprofessionals with archival interests pursuing careers in librarianship.
The acronym “SJ4A” in the grant title represents key constructs central to the project’s scope and related to social justice competencies for BIPOC archives-related paraprofessionals in terms of activism, advocacy, autonomy, and accountability.
Program Benefits
Students will receive a structured, individually tailored cohesive and comprehensive curriculum drawing upon intersections in archival studies and social justice scholarship and practice. They will receive formal/informal professional mentoring by educators and practitioners and will apply the acquired skills through an integrated practicum course with community-based agencies external to their workplace. Students will learn and apply archive management and social justice skillsets incorporated into the curriculum to develop work applications and practices that create tangible deliverables that are especially tailored towards meeting underrepresented needs in their embedded communities.
SJ4A is providing full-tuition scholarship for two years with an allowance for materials, part-time degree program with a structured, individually-tailored archival studies and social justice-based curriculum with formal/informal professional mentoring by educators and practitioners.
Program Design
The overall project design covers SIX phases. These phases include: (1) Recruitment and applications of SJ4A students from diverse archives-related environments; (2) Needs assessment of social injustices and GLAM services in their communities and relationship-building with employers; (3) Implementation of educational/training activities and mentoring; (4) Ongoing evaluation of program outcomes; (5) Career growth and placement assessment, post-graduation tracking; (6) Dissemination of program results.
Five major components of the SJ4A curriculum:
1. Knowledge of core functionalities in the profession
2. SJ4A program archival studies courses:
- Introduction to archival studies and social justice intersections
- Intellectual foundations of archival theory and practice
- Archival appraisal
- Archival representation, access, and use
3. SJ4A program social justice courses:
- Social justice and inclusion advocacy
- Applying diversity leadership theories and praxis
- Community-engaged scholarship
- Outreach to diverse populations (or other)
4. Social justice archivist and activist practicum/internship
5. Comprehensive ePortfolio showcase
Contact
For more information, please contact Dr. Bharat Mehra (205-348-5259; bmehra@ua.edu) or Dr. Robert Riter (205-248-6232; rbriter@ua.edu), School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama.
Partners
SLIS faculty Drs. Bharat Mehra and Robert Riter are partnering with multiple state archives-related agencies, including the Alabama Department of Archives and History (Steve Murray) and the Alabama Public Library Service (AL) (Dr. Nancy Pack), Multnomah County Archives (OR) (Terry Baxter), New Mexico State Library (NM) (Eli Guinnee), Society of American Archivists (Courtney Chartier), Special Collections and Archives at the California State University (CA) (Dr. Mario H. Ramirez), and others to participate in the various grant activities that will be documented on the project website.
