Editor’s note: This is the thirteenth entry in a series on how historians—especially contingent historians and those employed outside of tenure-track academia—do the work of history. If you know of someone we should interview, or would like to be interviewed yourself, send an email with the subject line HOW I DO HISTORY to pitches@contingentmag.org.
Amalia Levi (@amaliasl on Twitter) is an archivist and cultural heritage professional. Here’s how she does history.
You’re the founder and chair of The HeritEdge Connection, Inc. Tell us about the organization and the work it does.
The HeritEdge Connection is a non-profit organization, established in 2018, with the aim of bringing together people and institutions around cultural heritage projects. The model is a simple one: we forge connections and collaborations by helping institutions see potential projects in their collections, seek grant funding in collaboration with and for them, and carry out these projects once funding has been awarded.
Most cultural heritage organizations have holdings that can form the basis for amazing projects, but lack the resources (funds, time, staff, expertise, etc.) to dedicate to them. On top of this, grant-making agencies might not be aware of all the organizations and potential projects that need funding. Furthermore, there are university students and cultural heritage enthusiasts that have time and skills to offer, and benefit from working or volunteering in these projects. HeritEdge aims to be the common thread among them all.
An important aspect of what HeritEdge does is public outreach and engagement, particularly around the issue of accessibility. For instance, digitization of archival holdings in countries in the Global South benefits scholars in the Global North. Often, local audiences have trouble accessing physical copies, particularly since so much has been carried off to colonial metropoles, and remain unaware that digitized material pertaining to their history is easily accessible online. We promote accessibility through public workshops, by encouraging people to directly engage with digitized archival material.
Tell our readers what a typical day and week of work is like for you. Is there such a thing as a typical day for you?
Nope! I try to stick to a daily routine, but something always comes up to make each day totally different. The only typical days are those that I spend actively processing archival records, when I can concentrate and, in a way, distract myself from other distractions. It is hard work that requires a variety of abilities: focus, attention to detail, “seeing” a story even in the most mundane records, understanding context, recognizing, and bringing to light “hidden” voices, and most importantly, establishing necessary infrastructure in terms of arrangement, description, and finding aids to help the public see the people and their lives behind these documents.
But such organized, focused days are rare. Somehow, the present always manages to butt in on the past.
You’re an archivist and some of your archival work is free-lance. So tell us what an archivist typically does (one based at a single, physical archive) and then what it means to be a free-lance archivist.
An archivist based at a physical archive and a free-lance archivist perform similar core functions ranging from acquiring, managing, preserving, and processing archival collections; to digitization and reference to exhibition development, events organization, and public outreach. Archivists based at physical archives work with the collections of one institution and sometimes with the support of other colleagues, while as a free-lance archivist I often work independently and deal with multiple institutions at the same time.
For example, last year I was working concurrently on three different projects. One was digitization of archival material, and another one was the documentation of an art collection. Both were tricky, but exciting in their own way. The third was still at the grant-writing phase—in fact there were probably three at different stages of grant cycles. Each project offered a bit of refuge: if I felt frustrated with some aspect of a project, I knew that the next day I would be working on something else.
Amalia working to document the art collection of the Sidney Martin Library, University of the West Indies, 2018.
You’ve worked in several different museums and archives. Tell us about them and your work there. What are some similarities and differences between working museums and archives in the US and ones in Barbados and Turkey?
In Turkey and the US, I worked in Jewish museums and archives (including the Jewish Museum of Florida and the Jewish Museum of Turkey) while in Barbados I worked on projects in collaboration with the national archives. In the museums I managed collections and developed exhibits, while in the archives I was involved in the processing and digitization of records.
The main similarities are the common needs and requirements of museum and archival collections, revolving around preservation and accessibility for the public. In terms of differences, I see three main categories: a) the amount of funding available to archives, libraries and museums, which in the US is more readily available and which eventually affects an institution’s work, b) the climate, which in warmer countries such as in Barbados creates additional challenges for an institution, and c) the people, who have quite different expectations and ways of interacting in each country.
Working in different countries certainly requires adaptability to circumstances on the ground, an understanding of local norms and customs, tolerance and respect towards different viewpoints and opinions, and patience when things just don’t work the way we want them to.
Amalia with colleagues from the University of Florida, during digitization training for Barbados Archives staff, 2018.
Have you always been interested in history?
Growing up in Greece, in both a family and a culture that placed large emphases on heritage and history, certainly influenced the directions of my life and career path. In the first part of my life though this was done in a stout nationalistic way, inside national borders. Then, I married into a Sephardic Turkish family, and became immersed in Jewish culture, and of course the concept of the diaspora, which really has defined my life since then. To a large degree, I think this background shaped who I am today. In many ways, not living in one’s “own” country since my undergrad has been tough, often unsettling, but it has contributed to experiences I deeply cherish.
Where did you complete your BA? Was history your main area of study in college? What other degrees do you have and where did you complete them?
I completed my BA at the University of Athens in Greece, with a major in Archaeology and History of Art and a minor in History. Later on, I completed a Master’s degree in Museum Studies at the Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul, Turkey. I also received a dual Master’s degree in Library Science and History from the University of Maryland. After that, I started a doctoral degree in Information Science; however, I was unable to complete it due to some health and family issues.
What were your research interests in graduate school?
In grad school, I had two main research interests: (a) How do we “unearth” the archival traces of a marginalized person to “rewrite” them back into the historical record? and (b) How can we link dispersed material of diasporic people to tell cohesive stories? Both research interests correspond to and frame the concept of “archival silences” which fascinates me.
When grappling with gaps in the archives, rather than being frustrated by the lack of material (which is due to many, many reasons), we can try to read between the lines of existing documents to find information that might seemingly not be there but might be alluded to. Additionally, seeing items in a web of relationships with other contextual material can help us deduce information about people that might not be readily visible. This thinking and approach helped me trace and reconstruct the life of a 19th-century woman, Lea Mitrani, for my master’s thesis.
Amalia presenting at an event to celebrate completion of digitization of and online access to the Barbados Mercury Gazette, 2019.
What are some projects you have worked on? Tell us about one you are particularly proud of.
The project I’m most proud of is the series of public workshops I organized following the digitization of the historical newspaper, the Barbados Mercury Gazette. These workshops aimed to engage the local community with its own history. Usually, digitization results in digital images that, when put online, end up replicating and amplifying the gaps and silences inherent in colonial records. I envisioned these workshops as community-inclusive decolonization and restorative work, aiming to reclaim the individuality of people erased in colonial archives into the historical record. During these workshops, people were encouraged to contextualize the information in the newspaper, particularly ads for runaway slaves, in creative ways through their local knowledge, lived experience, genealogical research, speculative writing or digital methods. You can read more here.
You’ve worked on a number of digital humanities (DH) projects. Can you tell us about them? Also, for our readers, can you tell us your definition of what the digital humanities are?
In essence, digital humanities is humanities scholarship conducted with digital tools. This allows us to study humanities data at scale, see connections that might not be visible, and derive conclusions that cannot be gleaned through traditional methods. I find that the biggest contribution of digital humanities is the possibilities to contribute to reconstructing the gaps and omissions of the historical record.
As an archivist working on digitization projects, I have had first-hand experience in seeing how the gaps, omissions and silences in archival documents get reproduced when material is digitized, and then amplified through use. What I have witnessed, for example, is that dominant voices stay dominant, while marginalized communities become even more so. This is why I place great emphasis in reparative and restorative work, i.e. purposeful work that aims to repair past wrongs and restore people and communities into history. A project that I am very excited about is reconstructing the community of enslaved people that lived and worked in the Jewish households in Bridgetown in Barbados. I began seeing fleeting images of these people while processing and digitizing Jewish material in Barbados, and I hope I will be able to shed more light on their stories and lives through digital humanities methods. I am happy to share with you that, starting this fall, I will be doing this as a PhD researcher based out of the Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies.
Front page of the Barbados Mercury and Bridgetown Gazette, June 6, 1807. See more here.
What do you think is the toughest part of working as an archivist? And as a free-lance archivist?
Working as an archivist, one of the toughest things is making peace with the momentous effort of making material in the collection accessible (and usable!) for people in the face of insufficient funding and a lack of resources.
As a free-lance archivist, this still holds true, and I find that it is magnified: you juggle working with many different archives and coming into contact with many more collections than you would normally deal with if you were working at one institution. Furthermore, you are excited and hopeful and eager to make a difference, but often the grant proposal you have put together does not get funded or the consultancy proposal does not get selected.
And of course, as an “outsider,” many things are beyond your control. One has to accept that, anticipate and factor it into the “pipeline” of one’s work and also learn to be stoic in the face of adversities and failure—and there’s a lot of that, usually hidden under shiny, “perfect” projects. Working free-lance involves a lot of risk management and even more diplomacy.
The physicality of working with archival material.
What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about what historians do and how they work?
Most people think historians simply read documents and write a linear account of history. Documents, however, never present a linear account of events. Historians “read” not only that which is written, but also what is unwritten, ambiguous, alluded to, concealed (by chance or intentionally), or misleading, among others. They must find and weave different levels of information into a coherent whole. History is never linear—one has to dive into the depths of information.
You’re a scholar of Jewish history. For those interested in the field and wanting to learn more about, what are some helpful resources? Who are some scholars of Jewish history that have inspired you?
As is the case with other area studies, “Jewish history” is multidisciplinary and multi-faceted, and this makes it difficult to properly reply to this question. Due to the dispersion of Jewish communities and cultures in many, vastly different places and over millennia, it is impossible to grasp the totality of Jewish history. In this context, my field of research is the Sephardic diaspora: The Eastern diaspora in the Ottoman Empire and the Levant, and the Western diaspora in the Caribbean.
For those interested in the field, you can start out by exploring the websites of the Association of Jewish Studies and the Association of Jewish Libraries. Scholars of Sephardic history whose work I appreciate are Sarah Abrevaya Stein (UCLA) and Devin Naar (UW), working on the Eastern Sephardic diaspora, and Jonathan Schorsch (Potsdam U) and Laura Leibman (Reed College), working on the Western Sephardic diaspora.
What is something people don’t know or appreciate about working in an archive or museum?
Despite the cliché and the aura of dust, archives are not dusty. The core function of archives is to preserve material for access well into the future. We take good care of our collections. Most of the work that we do is behind the scenes—we keep things going and make it look easy. In fact, things look so easy that usually the work of archivists and librarians is undervalued and unappreciated.
What advice would you share with someone wanting to work in an archive or museum?
Do not think that success only means working in a big, well-known institution. Your skills and enthusiasm can go a long way working in an archives, library, museum, or historical society at a smaller place. You can make a difference for the community and for your institution. Even when resources are limited, there is a lot that can be done that does not require money, by simply changing an organization’s “worldview” and the way it interacts with the public. I think the most important thing to keep in mind if you want to work in an archives or museum is that, at the end of day, it’s not about our collection, but about people and what we can do for them with our collections.
At a workshop to introduce the public to historic material, December 2017. That’s Amalia in the background.
What is the best advice you can give to people now, who due to the pandemic, cannot physically visit archives or museums, and instead use digital archives?
What you see online is only the tip of the iceberg. Don’t assume that *everything* is digitized. Digitization is an expensive endeavor, and the vast majority of heritage collections are analogue. To better understand what you “read” on-screen, it’s best to read it alongside the finding aid or other description of that collection. What has been selected for digitization—and what has been omitted—can change the context of an item.
If money, time, and distance were not issues, what’s a dream project you’d love to tackle?
I would love to create a Caribbean Jewish Communities Documentation Portal. Considering the dispersion of archival material of and about these communities in former colonial metropoles in Europe, in the U.S., in Israel, and other places, and the importance of the Jewish communities as a lens to understand the Caribbean, I would like to see a portal that would link and contextualize archival material, library holdings, museum collections, personal archives and material culture, among others.
If you weren’t a scholar, what kind of work do you think you’d be doing?
Nowadays, I am more of a practitioner than a scholar. I do miss scholarly research, so that’s something that I wish I would be doing more. I just love immersing myself in archives, trying to find connections and stories.
