Digitizing Graterford: Race and Remembrance in the Digital Archive

Join us for the second activation of the Graterford Archive, Digitizing Graterford: Race and Remembrance in the Digital Archive. The event will begin with a brief presentation on the Black history of Graterford by Community Archivist Wynn Eakins, followed by a panel discussion featuring Dr. Tonia Sutherland, author of Resurrecting the Black Body: Race and the Digital Afterlife, and award-winning multidisciplinary artist Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter. Together, we will examine the troubling methodologies that cultural institutions use to collect and profit from the histories of slavery and prisons in Pennsylvania. We will also investigate how to disrupt cycles of violence against Black lives in archives, and think through the broader impact of Black digital humanities on Pr*son liberation.

Tickets are limited, so please rsvp for the livestream only if you do not plan to attend in person.

Dr. Tonia Sutherland is Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Development in the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Prior to joining the faculty at UCLA, Sutherland was an assistant professor in the Department of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama. Sutherland holds a PhD and an MLIS from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Computing and Information (formerly the School of Information Studies), and a BA in history, performance studies, and cultural studies from Hampshire College. Global in scope, Suther­land’s research focuses on entanglements of technology and culture, with particular emphases on critical and liberatory work within the fields of archival studies, digital studies, and science and technology studies. 

Sutherland is an internationally recognized expert in data futures (particularly data longevity and digital immortality), Black digital archives, and Black Memory Work. Her work critically examines the analog histories of modern information and communication technologies; addresses trends of racialized violence in 21st century digital cultures; and interrogates issues of race, gender, and culture in archival and digital spaces. In her work, Sutherland focuses on various infrastructures–technological, social, human, cultural–addressing important concerns such as gaps and vagaries; issues of equity and inclusivity; and developing more liberatory praxes.

​Sutherland is the author of Resurrecting the Black Body: Race and the Digital Afterlife (University of California Press, October 2023). In addition to being the Founder and Director of Pendulum and The Black Memory Collective, she serves as Co-Director of the Community Archives Lab at UCLA and Co-Founder and Co-Director of AfterLab at the University of Washington iSchool. Sutherland serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies at New York University and is a member of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry (C2i2)’s Scholar Council. She has been a member of the American Studies Association, the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S), the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, the Society of American Archivists and the Association for Library and Information Science Education. Her work appears in journals such as New Media and Society; The Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies; The American Archivist; The Black Scholar; Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture; Archival Science; The Annual Review of Cultural Heritage Informatics; and Radical History Review.

Mary Enoch Elizabeth Baxter is an award-winning multidisciplinary artist, writer, pedagogue, and cultural worker based in Philadelphia PA. As a visionary thought leader creating socially conscious music, film, performance, and visual art, her practice embodies resilience, care, and community-centeredness while working at the intersections of reproductive justice, black feminist thought and transformative change.

In recent years, Baxter worked as an executive producer as well as starred alongside the indomitable Faith Ringgold in Paint Me a Road Out of Here (PMAR), which premiered at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC on June 14, 2024.

Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally at venues including MoMA PS1, New York; the African American Museum of Philadelphia; Frieze LA; Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia; Ben & Jerry’s Factory in Waterbury, Vermont; Martos Gallery, New York; the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Ohio; Brown University, Rhode Island; the Schomburg, New York; Yale Art Gallery, Connecticut; the National Museum of World Cultures Leiden, Netherlands; Two Rivers Gallery, British Columbia; as well as a solo exhibition in 2023 at the Brooklyn Museum, New York.

Ms. Baxter is also an inaugural 2017 Right of Return fellow; a 2018 and 2019 Mural Arts Philadelphia Reimagining Reentry fellow; a 2019 Leeway Foundation Transformation awardee; a 2021 Ed Trust Justice fellow; a 2021 Frieze Impact Prize award winner; a 2022 S.O.U.R.C.E Studio Corrina Mehiel Fellow; 2022 Art 4 Justice grantee partner; 2022 Pratt Forward fellow; 2022 Artist2Artist Art Matters Foundation grantee and grantor; and a 2023 Soros Justice fellow.

On February 2, 2024, Baxter received a Governors’ Pardon from Josh Shapiro and the CommonWealth of Pennsylvania, thus honoring her transformative work in the arts and culture sector as well as Baxter's 17 year commitment to communal healing, advocacy and repair.

Wynn Eakins is a librarian and community archivist from Richmond, VA. Before joining Haverford College as the Community Archivist for the Graterford Archive, Wynn was a reference librarian and subject specialist of African Americana at the Library Company of Philadelphia. With a background in Black history, information science, and anti-colonial struggle, Wynn stewards projects towards cultural care and belonging in the digital age.

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