Jamillah R . Gabriel | University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (original) (raw)
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Papers by Jamillah R . Gabriel
Deciding Where to Live : Information Studies on Where to Live in America, 2020
Proceedings of ACRL, 2021
Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies, 2022
“…we, Black people everywhere and anywhere we are, still produce in, into, and through the wake a... more “…we, Black people everywhere and anywhere we are, still produce in, into, and through the wake an insistence on existing: we insist Black being into the wake.”
– Christina Sharpe, In the Wake (2016)
In this paper, I introduce Christina Sharpe’s conceptualizations of wake and wake work, as they pertain to archiving the experiences of Blackness to better understand how the archive and archives are vital for those living and working in the wake of slavery. I am particularly interested in the wake work conducted both in literary works (speculative fiction) and at information sites (community archives). To that end, I closely examine archives as they are presented in literature so as to explicate how these archival narratives created by Black authors perform wake work. Moreover, I make the connection between literary wake work, that which is performed by Black speculative fiction writers, and information wake work, that which is performed by Black community archivists, before delving into an analysis of the physical act of creating archives as the wake work of Black archivists. This investigation of wake work and archive(s) is meant to articulate Black life through a multidisciplinary lens, one that merges scholarship in Black studies, archives, information, and literature. My interrogation of archiving Blackness centers on the concepts of “wake” and “wake work,” and how they can be used to characterize the act of archiving the histories and the futures of Black people as an intervention towards coloring and diversifying the archival record.
Proceedings of ISIC: the information behaviour conference, 2020
Introduction. This poster is an investigation of reading culture in Tanzania via the lens of Afri... more Introduction. This poster is an investigation of reading culture in Tanzania via the lens of Africana critical thought and everyday life theory. Method. Informal interviews were conducted to gauge an understanding of the cultural from various perspectives including libraries and the book industry. Analysis. This subject is explored using analytic autoethnography to understand the culture in relation to the lived experiences of this author. Results. The paper illuminates issues and concerns around the country’s current reading culture and relation to information behaviour, highlighting factors that play a major role, such as book retail, libraries, and publishing. Conclusion. There is much more that can be done to improve reading culture in Tanzania. Perhaps the future lies in the grassroots organisations that are working hard to develop and sustain it.
Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 2021
Deciding Where to Live : Information Studies on Where to Live in America, 2020
Proceedings of ACRL, 2021
Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies, 2022
“…we, Black people everywhere and anywhere we are, still produce in, into, and through the wake a... more “…we, Black people everywhere and anywhere we are, still produce in, into, and through the wake an insistence on existing: we insist Black being into the wake.”
– Christina Sharpe, In the Wake (2016)
In this paper, I introduce Christina Sharpe’s conceptualizations of wake and wake work, as they pertain to archiving the experiences of Blackness to better understand how the archive and archives are vital for those living and working in the wake of slavery. I am particularly interested in the wake work conducted both in literary works (speculative fiction) and at information sites (community archives). To that end, I closely examine archives as they are presented in literature so as to explicate how these archival narratives created by Black authors perform wake work. Moreover, I make the connection between literary wake work, that which is performed by Black speculative fiction writers, and information wake work, that which is performed by Black community archivists, before delving into an analysis of the physical act of creating archives as the wake work of Black archivists. This investigation of wake work and archive(s) is meant to articulate Black life through a multidisciplinary lens, one that merges scholarship in Black studies, archives, information, and literature. My interrogation of archiving Blackness centers on the concepts of “wake” and “wake work,” and how they can be used to characterize the act of archiving the histories and the futures of Black people as an intervention towards coloring and diversifying the archival record.
Proceedings of ISIC: the information behaviour conference, 2020
Introduction. This poster is an investigation of reading culture in Tanzania via the lens of Afri... more Introduction. This poster is an investigation of reading culture in Tanzania via the lens of Africana critical thought and everyday life theory. Method. Informal interviews were conducted to gauge an understanding of the cultural from various perspectives including libraries and the book industry. Analysis. This subject is explored using analytic autoethnography to understand the culture in relation to the lived experiences of this author. Results. The paper illuminates issues and concerns around the country’s current reading culture and relation to information behaviour, highlighting factors that play a major role, such as book retail, libraries, and publishing. Conclusion. There is much more that can be done to improve reading culture in Tanzania. Perhaps the future lies in the grassroots organisations that are working hard to develop and sustain it.
Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 2021