Reflections on African American Community Archives Theory
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.
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.
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.
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.
