About the AACAT-1870 Cohort I

African American Community Archives as Theory (AACAT-1870): Pedagogy, Praxis, and Autoethnographic Vision

The African American Community Archives as Theory (AACAT-1870) cohort emerges as an experimental pedagogical initiative grounded in the lived experience of its founder—an African American librarian and archivist who, as a newly minted Ph.D., sought meaningful opportunities within higher education yet encountered limited pathways to teach, and to teach what she envisioned. Rather than waiting for institutional validation, she forged an independent scholarly path shaped by self-definition, intellectual rigor, and community accountability. Guided by Audre Lorde’s assertion, “If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive,” the project began as an act of self-determined scholarship that gradually evolved into a collective learning space. Echoing Toni Morrison’s reminder that “This is precisely the time when artists go to work,” AACAT-1870 transformed necessity into vision, positioning creative intellectual labor as a response to structural absence.

Framed through an autoethnographic lens based on the founder’s lived experience as an independent lecturer, AACAT-1870 reflects both individual narrative and shared intellectual production. The initiative documents a pedagogical evolution shaped by reflection, experimentation, and iterative growth. Today, African American Community Archives as Theory (AACAT-1870) exists as an online learning experience designed for participants interested in joining a cohort community or engaging as independent learners. The course bridges archival theory, community memory work, and participatory archival practice, centering African American cultural knowledge systems within broader historical, cultural, and pedagogical frameworks.

Within the cohort environment, collaborative dialogue, critical inquiry, and digital exploration inform the learning process, while the independent pathway supports flexible, self-directed engagement. Participants encounter African American cultural memory, community storytelling, and inclusive archival methodologies not simply as theoretical constructs but as living practices shaped by social context and lived experience. Through curated readings, case studies, and applied engagement, the course foregrounds relationships between community members and information professionals, emphasizing questions of representation, authorship, ethics, and the political role of archives in sustaining African American heritage.

SUMMER 2026 — Digital Lab Launch

In Summer 2026, AACAT-1870 introduces its Digital Lab as a collaborative scholarly environment designed to support ongoing experimentation, shared resources, and reflective practice. The Digital Lab functions as a living extension of the cohort model, offering participants a space to explore digital curation, community archiving projects, and collective inquiry beyond scheduled sessions. Rooted in the founder’s autoethnographic approach, the Lab emphasizes accessibility, creative autonomy, and Black archival futures.

FALL 2026 — Expanded Learning Pathways

Beginning in Fall 2026, the Digital Lab further integrates cohort participants and independent learners into a unified learning infrastructure. This phase expands opportunities for asynchronous engagement, peer exchange, and sustained scholarly dialogue while maintaining the program’s commitment to care-centered pedagogy and community accountability. Rather than replacing the cohort experience, the Digital Lab deepens its impact by supporting multiple modes of participation and ongoing intellectual exchange.

Named for the year 1870—when African Americans were first fully recorded by name in the United States Census—AACAT-1870 symbolizes a historical moment of visibility, documentation, and reclamation. As an autoethnographic project unfolding in real time, the initiative serves as a living archive that documents its own transformation through pedagogy, community engagement, and critical reflection. Through this evolving structure, AACAT-1870 sustains a commitment to ethical, equitable, and community-centered archival practice, translating personal narrative into a shared intellectual and cultural framework.

The Data

This archival collection documents AACAT-1870: Introduction to African American Community Archives Theory, Cohort I, conducted from September 2025 through February 2026. The collection consists of course-generated and instructional materials, including curated resource lists, instructional content, participant-created materials, and documentation of course activities. Together, these records illustrate the pedagogical structure, theoretical frameworks, and community-centered archival methodologies emphasized throughout the course.

The collection also includes aggregated, de-identified original registration data used to document cohort scale and enrollment interest for descriptive and institutional reporting purposes. Registration data reflect characteristics at the point of enrollment only and do not represent attendance, participation, completion, withdrawal, or learning outcomes. No attrition or performance analysis is included in this phase of documentation.

This archive is preserved to support transparency, to establish a historical record of the AACAT-1870 Cohort I, and to contribute to future research in African American community archives, archival pedagogy, and community-centered archival education. Supplementary analysis incorporating participation, engagement, and completion metrics will be released in Summer 2026, following a comprehensive cohort review and documentation.

MEET COHORT MEMBERS

The Data II

Pedagogical Evolution: Why AACAT-1870 Transitions to an Asynchronous Cohort Model

The decision to transition AACAT-1870 into an asynchronous cohort model emerges directly from the analytic patterns identified in Cohort I feedback and reflection data: Course Reflection Summary and Analytic Overview, interpreted through an autoethnographic lens grounded in the founder’s lived experience as an independent lecturer. As both instructor and researcher, the founder’s position within the course design, facilitation, and reflective analysis shapes how participant experiences are understood—not as isolated challenges, but as part of a broader narrative about access, labor, and self-determined learning within and beyond academic institutions.

Early responses reveal that participants experience the course as intellectually rigorous and transformative, yet they also navigate significant structural pressures related to time management, platform navigation, notification volume, and accelerated pacing. These challenges are not interpreted as resistance to the theory or content; rather, they reflect the realities of adult learners balancing professional roles, caregiving responsibilities, community commitments, and scholarly growth—realities the founder herself navigates while teaching outside traditional institutional structures.

The thematic analysis demonstrates that learning deepens most when participants are able to move reflexively—engaging autoethnographic writing, archival literacy development, and community-centered praxis at their own rhythm. Recurring evidence of cognitive load during orientation, infrastructure friction within synchronous systems, and the emergence of individualized workflow strategies indicates that flexibility is not a convenience but a pedagogical necessity. Viewed through the founder’s autoethnographic practice, the asynchronous cohort model becomes an intentional methodological shift rather than a logistical adjustment.

In this context, the asynchronous structure is not a departure from rigor or community; it is an evolution aligned with AACAT-1870’s theoretical foundations. By allowing theory, reflection, and praxis to unfold across varied temporalities, the course sustains intellectual depth while honoring the lived realities of its learners and the founder’s commitment to building accessible, self-defined pathways for teaching, learning, and community-centered archival futures.

This statement represents a pedagogical and methodological reflection rather than an evaluation of participant performance. The perspectives expressed here are my own.

— Dr. kYmberly Keeton

The Data III

AACAT 1870 Reflection II (1).mp4

Dunbar AACAT Reflection (2).mp4

J. Price_Personal Reflection_Seminar II_AACAT.mp4

Martinez Individual Reflection - AACAT - Made with Clipchamp_1763309844197 (4).mp4

ReflectiononuseofAACAT_Browny (1).mp4

Reflections on African American Community Archives Theory

Overview

As part of AACAT-1870, I designed an individual reflective video assignment to examine how students understood and applied African American Community Archives Theory, including AACAT and/or BGLAM principles, within their own research, community, or professional contexts. The purpose of the assignment was not to assess recall or definitional accuracy, but to surface how theory functioned in practice—how students translated course concepts into ethical reasoning, decision-making, and lived or professional application.

Students were asked to record brief video reflections (1–3 minutes) responding to a shared prompt focused on application rather than abstraction. I intentionally selected video as the medium in order to privilege voice, presence, and affect—elements that are central to community archives work but often flattened or lost in written assessment. These reflections were reviewed during the seminar phase of the course and treated as complete qualitative data objects, consistent with community archives approaches that recognize narrative and testimony as whole records rather than raw material requiring extraction.

The reflections were analyzed in aggregate to better understand how students internalized, interpreted, and mobilized African American community archives frameworks over the course of the cohort.

Data Summary

Reflective videos reviewed: 6
Format: Individual video reflections (1–3 minutes each)
Assignment type: Required course reflection
Analytic approach: Holistic viewing and qualitative synthesis
Focus of analysis:
- Application of African American Community Archives Theory
- Ethical reasoning and community accountability
- Evidence of theory-in-use
- Emergent pedagogical feedback

No transcription was produced. In keeping with the values of the course and the field, videos were engaged as complete narrative records rather than segmented or reduced for coding.

Aggregated Findings

Applied Engagement with Theory

Across all reviewed reflections, students approached African American Community Archives Theory as actionable rather than abstract. Instead of repeating definitions, students articulated how AACAT and BGLAM principles could inform project design, research ethics, professional responsibilities, and community-centered decision-making. Theory appeared most often as a guide for practice rather than an object of study.

Community Accountability as a Central Value

A dominant throughline across reflections was accountability—to living communities, to families, and to future generations. Students consistently framed archival work as relational and ethical, emphasizing care, responsibility, and community authority over institutional neutrality. This orientation reflects a shift away from custodial models toward stewardship grounded in reciprocal obligation.

Critical Engagement with Dominant Archival Paradigms: Several reflections explicitly drew on AACAT or BGLAM principles to interrogate traditional archival norms, including assumptions of neutrality, institutional control, and extractive research practices. Rather than rejecting archives as a field, students articulated alternative models rooted in shared authority, community governance, and ethical refusal—hallmarks of African American community archives practice.

Ethical and Affective Dimensions of Learning. The video format surfaced ethical and affective dimensions of learning that are often absent from written assignments. Students spoke candidly about uncertainty, responsibility, conviction, and personal transformation. These expressions suggest a depth of engagement that exceeds surface comprehension and point toward meaningful internalization of course values.

Early Indicators of Learning Impact

Most students explicitly connected course theory to personal, community, or professional practice
Multiple reflections demonstrated shifts in how authority, ownership, and archival responsibility were understood
Students consistently described community archives as living, relational systems rather than static repositories

Taken together, these reflections suggest that AACAT-1870 supports applied, values-driven learning and encourages students to reimagine archival practice through African American community-centered frameworks.

Pedagogical Significance

From my perspective as instructor, these reflections functioned simultaneously as evidence of learning and as formative feedback. They provided insight into how students were metabolizing theory, where ethical tensions emerged, and how course concepts translated into real-world thinking. The assignment reaffirmed the value of short-form reflective video as a pedagogical tool—particularly in courses grounded in community archives, where voice, context, and relational accountability are central.

Ethics, Positionality, and Use Statement

The reflective videos referenced in this section were produced as part of a required instructional assignment within the AACAT-1870 independent cohort, a learning space I designed to center African American Community Archives Theory, lived experience, and community-based knowledge production. At the start of the cohort, students provided written permission and initialed their understanding that submitted materials—including video reflections—could be reviewed, analyzed, retained, and documented for instructional, research, and course documentation purposes.

Because these reflections were created within an intentionally relational pedagogical environment, individual student identities are known to me in my role as instructor and are visible within the context of the assignment. This visibility supports assessment, mentorship, and ethical witnessing rather than anonymized data extraction.

In public-facing materials, including course documentation and archival descriptions, student reflections are referenced only in aggregate or in de-identified form. No individual student is named or rendered identifiable beyond the instructional context unless separate, explicit permission has been granted. This approach reflects core principles of African American community archives practice, including respect for narrators, careful stewardship of memory, and accountability to those whose voices constitute the record.

The Data IV

AACAT-1870 Cohort I Forum

Collective Reflection and Meaning-Making (Part I | February 2026)

Executive Summary

This white paper documents a forum-based reflective exchange conducted with AACAT-1870 Cohort I during the seminar phase of the course. The forum emphasized collective reflection, ethical reasoning, and shared meaning-making rather than individual performance or evaluative outcomes. The accompanying infographic provides a visual synthesis of the cohort’s dialogic engagement and emergent themes.

Context and Purpose

AACAT-1870 is designed to operationalize African-American Community Archives Theory (AACAT) and related BGLAM principles through applied, relational, and ethically grounded pedagogy. The Cohort I Forum served as a structured space for participants to collectively reflect on their experiences, values, and orientations toward knowledge work within and adjacent to academic systems.

The purpose of this forum was not assessment, credentialing, or skills demonstration. Instead, it functioned as a site of shared interpretation and cohort-level meaning-making.

Forum Design and Structure

Format: Guided, dialogic forum discussion
Participants: AACAT-1870 Cohort I (de-identified)
Timing: Seminar phase, February 2026
Focus: Collective reflection, ethical orientation, relational knowledge production

The forum design privileged conversation, listening, and mutual recognition. Instructor participation emphasized affirmation and reframing rather than directive instruction.

Data Sources and Analytic Approach

This documentation draws on de-identified transcript excerpts derived from recorded forum dialogue. Analysis was conducted using qualitative, thematic methods with a cohort-level analytic lens.

Key analytic principles included:

Focus on collective rather than individual meaning-making
Attention to ethical positioning and reflexive discourse
Alignment with AACAT/BGLAM commitments to relational knowledge practices

The accompanying infographic visually represents the dominant themes identified through this analysis.

Key Themes (Cohort-Level)

The following themes emerged through collective dialogue:

Collective Self-Authorization
The cohort articulated authority and purpose as emerging from shared values rather than institutional validation.
Reflexive Negotiation of Academic Pathways
Formal academic structures appeared as contextual reference points rather than primary goals.
Ethical Orientation Toward Knowledge Labor
Participants collectively named ethical boundaries related to participation in academic systems.
Relational Validation
Knowledge legitimacy was affirmed through dialogue, listening, and mutual recognition.
Theory-in-Relation Enacted
AACAT/BGLAM principles were enacted through lived discourse rather than explicit citation.

Relationship Between the White Paper and Infographic

The infographic functions as a visual synthesis of the cohort’s reflective process, highlighting how theory, ethics, and relational practice intersected during the forum. This white paper provides the contextual, methodological, and interpretive grounding that supports the visual representation.

Together, these materials document cohort-level engagement without attributing statements or evaluative claims to individual participants.

Ethical Considerations and IRB Statement

All materials presented here are de-identified and documented for educational, archival, and research purposes. The forum activity was conducted in accordance with approved ethical protocols. No individual participant identities are disclosed in this documentation.

Intended Use and Archival Note

This white paper is intended for inclusion in the AACAT-1870 Google Course Archive as contextual documentation accompanying the Cohort I Forum infographic. It may also serve as a reference point for future cohorts, longitudinal analysis, or case study development.

Citation Guidance (Optional)

When referencing this document:

AACAT-1870 Cohort I Forum: Collective Reflection and Meaning-Making (Part I). February 2026.

Prepared for the AACAT-1870 Course Archive.

Participate in Cohort I Community Archiving Survey

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