KT received her Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Arts from the University of Idaho in May 2022 with emphases in Directing, History, and Pedagogy with an Academic Certificate in Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and universal Design for Learning. Currently, KT is the Distinguished Doctoral Fellow for the College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences at the University of Idaho studying History. She recently worked with University Special Collections and Archives to prepare an exhibit highlighting the contributions of women in the history of the university as the University of Idaho Women’s Center’s 50th Anniversary intern.
Originally from Hammond, Louisiana, KT has come to love the communities of Moscow, ID and the University of Idaho as a home away from home. She loves caring for her plants, expanding her personal library, playing guitar, singing, and binge-watching lectures on Wondrium and The Great Courses.
Why archives?
Guided by the idea that one is never really gone so long as they are remembered by one person, my favorite part of working in the archive is uncovering histories that have been forgotten and giving voice to the voiceless. My research focuses on the cultural histories of historically marginalized communities and the archive is an excellent place to restore cultural memory within those communities.
In your own words, why are archives important?
Archives are memory and, as a society, our memory is fairly poor. Maintaining records and making them available and accessible is important to preserving and, in some cases, restoring our shared cultural heritage and memory.
Where will your residency be and who are you working with?
I will be working at the University of Idaho Special Collections and Archives under the guidance of Assistant Professor Dulce Kersting-Lark, the Head of Special Collections and Archives. As I’ve worked with Dulce a few times previously, this is an exciting opportunity to continue to learn from her.
Tell us about the project you’ll be working on
This project will focus on community engagement with the University Archives. I will be processing accessions from community organizations and making them available and accessible to the public. In some cases, I’ll be creating digital exhibits to reach a wider audience. From there, I plan to reach out to current organizational leadership to potentially build a relationship of recurring or on-going accessions. The goal is to build establish community partnerships and build community engagement by making these community record available and offering our repository as a lasting location for community memories.
What skills do you bring with you that have prepared you for this residency?
As a modern-day Renaissance woman with a wide range of interests, I am curious and excited to learn new things. Thanks to my role as media coordinator and webmaster for other organizations, I’m savvy with various software programs for design and organization, and I value innovation and attention to detail. Ultimately, I’m a creative type with a passion for storytelling and a job well done.
What are your career goals and how does this project help support you in achieving these goals?
I aspire to be a professor of theatre history. I want to bring marginalized stories to the forefront by presenting the history of things that have been forgotten or overlooked. This project supports my abilities as a researcher by giving me the opportunity to become more acquainted with various types of documents, media, and mediums. In addition, this project helps learn how to efficiently fit puzzle pieces together, as that is what we ultimately do when processing: present material in order (whether self-imposed or as organized when we received the material) that helps researchers and historians make sense of the information. Finally, this project helps me to look outside of the research and toward the people the research affects and inspires. My goal isn’t simply to say, “This is what happened.” Rather, I want to explore the stories that happen next.
In your own words, how will your work benefit UI SPEC?
Moscow, ID is a tight knit community, with a rich history, but sometimes things get lost and scattered. Not only will this work allow the community to access their own recent history, but University of Idaho Special Collections and Archives will hopefully see an uptick in community engagement while clearing some of the backlog.
Northwest Archivists 