Graduate students in Advocacy & Equity Studies beta-tested DEI Audit Tool for Finding Aids

Written by Nashieli Marcano

This spring semester we welcomed students from the Advocacy & Equity Studies graduate program to beta-test the DEI Audit Tool for assessing finding aids. As part of the course, AES 630: Seminar in Public Narratives—Cultural Institutions as Vehicles for Storytelling and in collaboration with Dr. Kylie Fisher (Art Education; Advocacy & Equity Studies), we created an opportunity for them to evaluate the degree to which the content of the finding aid(s) encourages research and scholarship that can elevate marginalized voices and stories. Session 1 was devoted to introducing students to the concept and components a finding aid, a primer on the institution of the Archives and the archival practice, and instructions on how to complete the audit activity to assess the Max M. Heller Papers Collection Finding Aid.

The survey, which is part of our DEI Audit Toolkit, guides raters through the process of identifying the degree to which a finding aid provides entry points to a collection and its associated material potentially useful to DEIA scholars. It also serves as a strategy for acknowledging marginalized voices, even if these voices are not the main subjects who created the collection or are being described in the finding aid. Session 2 focused on reviewing a cross-section of the Max Heller Collection described in the finding aid and on providing recommendations for remediation. Alongside the recommendations, students wrote a reflection to address the ways in which the DEI audit

contributes to public narrative productions and advocacy efforts on campus.