Building the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)

Michelle Caswell, PhDAssistant Professor/ Information Studies/ UCLA

Board Member/ SAADA

Vaishno Das Bagai, 1923

Rani Bagai, 2013

Symbolic Annihilation

The ways in which members of marginalized groups are absent, grossly under-represented, maligned, or trivialized by mainstream media.

Gaye Tuchman, “Introduction: The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media,” in Hearth and Home: Images of Women in the Mass Media, Gaye Tuchman, Arlene Kaplan Daniels, and James Benet, eds., New York: Oxford University Press, 1978, p. 3-38

Q: What happens when you don’t see yourself reflected in archives?

A: Do something about it!

South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA)

• 2008• Myself and Samip Mallick• Online only• Post-custodial model• Drupal content management system• Dublin core metadata• LOCKSS• Independent non-profit 501-c-3 organization• Governed by board of community members• 1 paid FTE staff

SAADA’s mission and vision

MissionSAADA creates a more inclusive society by giving voice to South Asian Americans through documenting, preserving, and sharing stories that represent their unique and diverse experiences.

VisionWe envision American and world histories that fully acknowledge the importance of immigrants and ethnic communities in the past, strengthen such communities in the present, and inspire discussion about their role in the future.

Documenting those in the

who trace their heritage to

Bangladesh, Bhutan, India,

Maldives,Nepal,

Pakistan,Sri Lanka

and the many South Asian diaspora communities around the globe.

Collection Policy

We strive to reflect the diversity of South Asian American experiences in the US, with an emphasis on:• Pre-1965 immigrants and visitors• The Bellingham Riots (1907)• Political Activism• Artists, writers, intellectuals• Post 9/11 discrimination

Counter myths of the “model minority” and the terrorist.

http://www.saadigitalarchive.org

SAADA by the numbers

• 2,161 records (and growing)• 164,217 visitors in 2014• 2,943 “likes” on Facebook • $59,171 annual budget in 2014• 95% of funding from individuals

Our Stories Kickstarter

First Days Project

SAADA’s impact?

• Measure by # of records?• Measure by # of stories?• Measure by hits?• Measure by citations?• Or measure by community impact…

Representational Belonging

The ways in which community-based archives enable people who have been marginalized to have the power and authority to establish and enact their presence in ways that are complex, meaningful, substantive, and positive to them in a variety of symbolic contexts.

“From a young age I felt unsettled in my identity as an American…. I felt trapped between two worlds, feeling entirely at home in neither one…I felt a sense of displacement by not seeing myself reflected in the American story. Learning about South Asian American history was transformational for me. Stories like that of Anandibai Joshee, Dalip Singh Saund, and Lalit Gadhia were not stories that I could learn about in school, read in textbooks or see covered in the media. But it was through learning about these stories and the many others like them that finally helped me see myself reflected in the American experience. For me knowing there is a long, rich and diverse history of South Asians in the U.S. counteracts that feeling of displacement.”

SAADA Executive Director, Samip Mallick

“My dad died…a little over a year ago. And the [oral history] interview that I did with him [for SAADA] was the only one that I did with him. And it's there [in SAADA]. And that is a treasure to me. And I did it because I wanted to work with SAADA and to have a place for these oral histories. So, for me personally, the value of the archive is profound. And I think that that may be true for a lot of people who suddenly are able to discover themselves, existing, being documented.”

-Member, SAADA’s Academic Council

SAADA’s impact

• Ontological– I am here

• Epistemological– We were here

• Social– You belong here

Thanks! For more information…

• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/saada/our-stories-an-introduction-to-south-asian-america

• Caswell, Michelle. “Seeing Yourself in History: Community Archives in the Fight Against Symbolic Annihilation.” The Public Historian 36(4) November 2014: 26-37.

• Caswell, Michelle. “Community-Centered Collecting: Finding Out What Communities Want from Community Archives.” Proceedings of the 77th ASIS&T Annual Meeting, volume 51, October 31-November 4, 2014.

• Caswell, Michelle. “Inventing New Archival Imaginaries: Theoretical Foundations for Identity-Based Community Archives.” In Identity Palimpsests: Ethnic Archiving in the U.S. and Canada. Sacramento, CA: Litwin Books, 2014: 35-55.

• Caswell, Michelle and Samip Mallick. “Collecting the Easily Missed Stories: Digital Participatory Microhistory and the South Asian American Digital Archive.” Archives and Manuscripts 42:1 (2014): 73-86.