The following sections have been produced by students of the HIST 477 (Public Engagements with History) course. In this course, readings examined both theoretical and practical dimensions of concepts like cultural memory, preservation, archives, metadata, classification, access, and more.
As part of the course, students selected their own topics as candidates for reparative work and developed recommendations in their respective sections, below. Save for formatting, the entries below are unedited submissions from students of the course.
Note: An additional element of the course was to practice cataloging a title related to their topic. Students were not given restrictions on what headings they chose (e.g. use LCSH or alternative controlled vocabularies) in order to allow the widest range of possible topics and metadata to be generated.
Decolonizing Black campus housing requires a deep understanding of how historical narratives have misrepresented the experiences and needs of Black students. This section aims to inform librarians about these misrepresentations and the importance of engaging in reparative metadata practices that authentically document Black student experiences.
Discussions about Black campus housing have often been overshadowed by colonial legacies and systemic biases that prioritize white narratives. Historically, universities have created housing policies that serve the interests of white students, leading to the marginalization of Black student experiences. This exclusion has manifested in portrayals that frame Black dormitories as forms of segregation rather than as essential safe havens created in response to pervasive discrimination and hostility.
By failing to accurately represent the motivations behind the establishment of Black housing, the narrative has overlooked the psychological and emotional challenges faced by Black students. Microaggressions and explicit racism in predominantly white housing environments have gone unaddressed, leading to significant gaps in understanding the necessity of dedicated spaces for Black students. These misrepresentations diminish the recognition of the resilience and community-building efforts of Black students, which are crucial for their well-being.
The historical absence of Black perspectives in housing policy decisions further complicates representation, leaving many policies inadequately responsive to the needs of Black students. Without meaningful representation on housing advisory boards, the unique interests and concerns of Black students have often been ignored, resulting in institutional practices that perpetuate inequity.
To challenge and change these misrepresentations, librarians and archivists must actively engage in reparative metadata practices. This involves not only preserving the history of Black student life but also creating narratives that accurately reflect their contributions and challenges. By shifting the focus to the significance of Black housing as a response to systemic exclusion, we can foster a more nuanced understanding of Black students' experiences.
Reparative metadata practices are essential for documenting accurate and respectful representations of Black campus housing. Creating descriptive records that highlight the unique experiences of Black students can help challenge dominant narratives that have historically marginalized their presence on college campuses. Through this process, librarians can work to ensure that the archive reflects the historical context surrounding Black housing and the activism that has emerged in response to previous injustices.
Relevant literature emphasizes the importance of integrating these experiences into archival collection practices. Works by Hinton (2011) and Cole (2020) highlight the historical context of marginalization, while recent studies (The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, 2021) document disparities in housing equity. By utilizing this body of knowledge, librarians can advocate for policies that recognize and respect the realities of Black students' lives.
A comprehensive approach to decolonizing Black campus housing must begin with acknowledging historical misrepresentations and the urgent need for reparative practices in archival efforts. By understanding how these issues have been framed, librarians can engage in more meaningful documentation practices that honor and validate the experiences of Black students. Ultimately, this work contributes to creating a more inclusive academic environment that respects and uplifts diverse narratives.
The Cal Poly description assesses the challenges elite colleges face in genuinely admitting and educating a diverse student body. It explores how race and social class influence the college experience, focusing on admission advantages for minorities, academic achievement gaps, and social interactions. While diversity has increased, students from different backgrounds often do not interact as expected. The authors call for enhanced interaction among student groups and better access for lower socioeconomic status students, providing critical insights into elite higher education dynamics.
The WorldCat entry has no description or subjects listed.
The publisher's description concludes that diverse students admitted through affirmative action programs have not achieved equality with their privileged peers, and that multicultural thinking is still slow to develop on campus.
In "No Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal," the authors explore the complex dynamics of race and social class within the highly selective environment of elite colleges in America. The narrative is anchored in the ongoing legacy of educational segregation, rooted in landmark cases like Brown v. Board of Education, which continues to shape the experience of minority students today. Through an in-depth examination of the college admission cycle, the book illustrates the complex barriers faced by underrepresented groups. It critiques the notion of meritocracy within a context that favors privilege, highlighting how factors such as social class and race intersect with academic achievement. This influences not only who gets admitted but also how students experience campus life and forge social relationships amidst an uneven playing field. The work calls for a reevaluation of commitment to diversity, urging educational institutions to address systemic inequities to create genuine inclusivity.
When comparing these descriptions, there are several notable points of alignment and divergence:
My description can assist researchers seeking materials that critically engage with the implications of race and social class in education. It offers a nuanced understanding that spans beyond surface-level diversity metrics. By examining the effectiveness of college policies and the lived experiences of minority students in elite settings, it fosters a more comprehensive dialogue about the responsibilities of higher education institutions in confronting historical inequities. This positions the book as a vital resource for ongoing discussions surrounding educational equity and social justice.
Written by Albert Beerbower, Fall 2025
Over the course of this project, it is the intended purpose of this archival literary guide to add further clarification in so far as the Bracero program that was undertaken by the United States alongside the sovereign state of Mexico over the course of 1942-1964. With the intent of further elucidating upon the “Bracero Conundrum” and its colonial implications, the aim is to effectively distance the historical dichotomy of the entire program from an American-centric narrative. Though the program hails these “immigrants” as heroes, the truth of the matter was that the American State had co-opted the existing Mexican labor paradigm which encompassed the entirely of the Hispanic West so long as it suited its interests, “fixing” its borders once the urgency was gone, and inhuman methods of deportation being deployed to clear out the “non-Americans.”
Be it from a macro or even a micro perspective, as it stands, the Bracero Program has remained firmly set to the tone of an American-centric narrative. With Cal Poly’s local archive as an example, political economy seems to be the overriding categorization as one steps into the field, with descriptors further leaning into the anthropological experiences of the labor force and their heroic endeavors during the Second World War. Yet, besides one singular book listing out the actual historic sub contexts of the program and its impacts, little has been done in so far as the dispelling of this perceived heroic nature of the Bracero program. Instead of presenting the “Bracero Program” as something out of an encyclopedia, one intends to peel back the layers of State machinations, highlighting the outrageous labor violations and downright human rights abuses which the program all but entailed. After all, at its core, this was not a venture for the improvement of transnational relations of Mexico and the United States, but one to supply labor to the voracious agribusiness construct that just a few years before had called upon the State to deport those very same laborers in the first place. Dubbed the “Bracero Conundrum,” volatile social controls to fulfill labor quotas by the State would in turn lead to a spike in perceived “illegal migrations,” conducted by private agribusiness corporations as they sought do what all capitalists do, cut costs and circumvent regulations with the intent of “ameliorating their bottom line.” Not just the importation of labor, but also the housing of these laborers and the chemicals utilized in themselves would cause further irreparable harm to both these individuals and the communities they would eventually go back to after their tenure of service. That, of course, is if they could go back to begin with, as many of the laborers themselves were transposed into the United States via illicit means, of which they themselves were unaware of in the first place. Bound by the overwhelming fear of the criminality of their existence within the borders of the United States, these laborers in turn are thusly subjected to wage-slavery, wholly dependent on the “graces” of the agribusiness which actively employs them to suit their needs. On this note, it is through these suggested resources that one will begin to construct this Archival Guide, reiterating the aim of de-associating the Bracero experience from the overarching colonial narrative stemming from the American experience, recognizing not only the lives and experiences of those individuals who underwent these social transformations, but also the capitalist exploitation of labor at its heart.
Lopez, Ann Aurelia. The Farmworkers’ Journey. University of California Press, 2007.
Illuminating the dark side of economic globalization, this book gives a rare insider's view of the migrant farmworkers' binational circuit that stretches from the west central Mexico countryside to central California. Over the course of ten years, Ann Aurelia López conducted a series of intimate interviews with farmworkers and their families along the migrant circuit. She deftly weaves their voices together with up-to-date research to portray a world hidden from most Americans-a world of inescapable poverty that has worsened considerably since NAFTA was implemented in 1994. In fact, today it has become nearly impossible for rural communities in Mexico to continue to farm the land sustainably, leaving few survival options except the perilous border crossing to the United States. The Farmworkers' Journey brings together for the first time the many facets of this issue into a comprehensive and accessible narrative: how corporate agribusiness operates, how binational institutions and laws promote the subjugation of Mexican farmworkers, how migration affects family life, how genetically modified corn strains pouring into Mexico from the United States are affecting farmers, how migrants face exploitation from employers, and more. A must-read for all Americans, The Farmworkers' Journey traces the human consequences of our policy decisions.
Illuminating the dark side of economic globalization, this book gives an insider's view of the migrant farmworkers' binational circuit that stretches from the west central Mexico countryside to central California. Useful for all Americans, "The Farmworkers' Journey" traces the human consequences of our policy decisions.
Illuminating the dark side of economic globalization, this book gives a rare insider's view of the migrant farmworkers' binational circuit that stretches from the west central Mexico countryside to central California. Over the course of ten years, Ann Aurelia López conducted a series of intimate interviews with farmworkers and their families along the migrant circuit. She deftly weaves their voices together with up-to-date research to portray a world hidden from most Americans—a world of inescapable poverty that has worsened considerably since NAFTA was implemented in 1994. In fact, today it has become nearly impossible for rural communities in Mexico to continue to farm the land sustainably, leaving few survival options except the perilous border crossing to the United States. The Farmworkers' Journey brings together for the first time the many facets of this issue into a comprehensive and accessible narrative: how corporate agribusiness operates, how binational institutions and laws promote the subjugation of Mexican farmworkers, how migration affects family life, how genetically modified corn strains pouring into Mexico from the United States are affecting farmers, how migrants face exploitation from employers, and more. A must-read for all Americans, The Farmworkers' Journey traces the human consequences of our policy decisions.
Over the course of Lopez’ book, The Farmworkers’ journey, the author illustrates the nature of Mexican agricultural practices prior to the developments of WWII and the subsequent Cold War. Since its days as Nueva Espana, many individuals in Mexico were sustenance farmers, living off of their lands to the degree that such agricultural communities could well-maintain townships exceeding populations of over 100,000. This would all change as mass deportation drives in the United States during the 1920’s destabilized the northern periphery of Mexico, only to turn back on these decisions as labor shortages in World War II forced the conception of the Bracero program, which in turn would see to a mass-migration of Mexican farmworkers to the United States to fill the void left by War. With the Green Revolution being brought to Mexico, it would further compound the issue, as industrialization further drove people away from their lands and massive agricultural corporations moved in. This in turn would also expose migrant laborers to harmful chemicals on both sides of the border, which caused irreparable harm to both the laborer and the environment. Furthermore, Lopez brings to light the abuses of American Agribusiness against migrant laborers, be it horrid living conditions or sub-par wages.
As one perused the classifications for Lopez’ book, one was rather perplexed as to the overarching theme which many of these headings seemed to follow. Of these, probably the most egregious was that of the publisher themselves, as University of California Press had all but labelled the book as being an anthropological study with the intent of furthering better policy in so far as the American state when dealing with the question of agricultural labor. In other words, like the Cal Poly subject headings, globalization seemed to be the culprit for all the woes being forced upon the varied agricultural laborer groups of the United States and as such, the subject headings lean into that perceived direction, a solution one may say, for what is inherently an American conundrum. These labels thusly run contrary to the true nature of the book, which is to not only provide evidence to the contrary, this being the historical implications of American meddling in the affairs of Mexico and its borderlands, but also the egregious practices of agribusiness in their drive towards greater profits at the expense of their workforce. This book is effectively a critique, and by all merits should have been labelled along the lines of social justices. Though it also classified the book as being of a socio-economic nature, Worldcat recognized the historical recollection of the work, and in the process, labelled it as a cross-disciplinary work bordering on political sciences as a result. In other words, of all three, Worldcat seemed to be the closest to what one envisioned the work to truly be encompassed as within the confines of the library.
Written by Pablo Sannabria, Fall 2025
The Chicanx movement in the mid-to-late twenty-first century embraced the Chicanx identity while fighting the remnants of colonial racism that continued to oppress their community. While the movement achieved significant labor and social gains, the movement was largely patriarchal, and excluded Chicana women. Chicana women thus experienced two legacies of colonialism: the oppression against them due to their race, and the exclusion they felt due to their sex. Chicana women were actively involved in the Chicanx movement, which fought against colonial and imperial structures that left their communities in a cycle of poverty and oppression. Because of the patriarchal nature of the Chicanx movement, Chicana women often felt unseen and not advocated for, which still remains prevalent in the archives. In order to decolonize this topic, the Chicana experience of facing multiple facets of oppression in the form of racism, sexism, and even heterosexism needs to be highlighted and given prevalence, instead of a secondary facet to the Chicanx movement. A conceptual issue in decolonizing Chicana feminism is to include feminist models that highlight the various types of Chicana women, including mestiza, Afro-Chincana, and indigenous women. Too often these groups of Chicana women are overlooked in Chicana feminist frameworks and in the Chicanx movement in general, so highlighting their unique experiences and the oppressions they feel is important to capture. Interdisciplinary approaches to Chicana feminist theory are key to capturing these feelings and experiences of diversity of women within the Chicana identity category, as different forms lend better to certain people to express themselves, their identity, and their struggles.
Contents: Desorden, nationalism, and Chicana/o aesthetics / Laura Elisa Pérez -- Bloody metaphors and other allegories of the ordinary / Elspeth Probyn -- Chicana feminism: in the tracks of the native woman / Norma Alarcón -- Re-imagining Chicana urban identities in the public sphere, cool chuca style / Rosa Linda Fregoso -- Guest at the wedding: honor, memory, and (national) desire in Michel Khleife's Wedding in Galilee / Mary N. Layoun -- Seduction and the ruses of power / Saidiya Hartman -- From nation-church to nation-state: evolving sex-gender relations in Québec society / Danielle Juteau -- Women between nation and state in Lebanon / Suad Joseph -- Relational positionalities of nationalisms, racisms, and feminisms / Daiva K. Stasiulis -- Feminism-in-nationalism: the gendered subaltern at the Yucatán Feminist Congresses of 1916 / Emma Pérez -- Multicultural nationalism and the poetics of inauguration / Minoo Moallem and Iain A. Boal -- Chicana! Rican? no, Chicana Ricquẽna!: refashioning the transnational connection / Angie Chabram-Dernersesian -- Fabricating masculinity: gender, race, and nation in a transnational frame / Dorinne Kondo -- Transnationalism, feminism, and fundamentalism / Minoo Moallem -- Transnational feminist cultural studies: beyond the Marxism/poststructuralism/feminism divides / Caren Kaplan and Inderpal Grewal.
In Between Woman and Nation constructions such as nationalism, homeland, country, region, and locality are for the first time examined in the context of gender. The contributors -- leading scholars of ethnicity, transnationalism, globalization, and feminist theory -- are united in their determination to locate and describe the performative space of interactions between woman and nation. Such interactions, claim the contributors, cannot be essentialized. This interdisciplinary collection investigates women in diverse locales -- ranging from Quebec to Beirut. The contributors consider such subjects as Yucatan feminism, Islamic fundamentalists, Canadian gender formations, historic Chicana/o struggles, and Israeli/Palestinian conflicts. Divided into three parts, the collection first examines constructions of nationalism and communities whose practices complicate these constructions. The second section discusses regulations of particular nation-states and how they affect the lives of women, while the third presents studies of transnational identity formation, in which contributors critique ideas such as "multicultural nationalism" and "global feminism." Arguing provocatively that such movements and concepts inadequately represent women's interests, contributors examine how such beliefs and their attendant organizations may actually bolster the very formations they ought to subvert.
Between Woman and Nation: Nationalisms, Transnational Feminisms, and the State, edited by Caren Kaplan, Norma Alarcón, and Minoo Moallem, examines nationalism, homeland, country, region, and locality in the context of gender. The book examines how different nations and nationalisms construct gender and gender performances. The authors investigate specific nation-states and how their constructions of gender affect women, and compare these to other nations. The authors refute the idea of a universal feminism or global feminism as the idea hurts the communities women seek to uplift.
Subject Headings
Overall, I had similar descriptions and subjects to Cal Poly/WorldCat/the publisher, but mine more accurately reflect the book’s central claims. Neither WorldCat nor Cal Poly included the term "nation-state" in their subject descriptions, even though the concept was central to the argument of the book – seen in the publisher’s overview and in the contents section in Cal Poly. Similarly, WorldCat and Cal Poly’s use of the terms "sex role" and "gender role" instead of feminist theory greatly ignores the intent of this book: how constructions of gender are made and enforced by the nation-state. The terms gender/sex role obscures the formation of these constructions and how they are performed and instead focuses on what they are. Furthermore, Cal Poly's omission of transnationalism and WorldCat’s classification of it as multiculturalism distorts and rejects the authors’ argument that there can be no one universal feminist identity. By definition multiculturalism means the acceptance of multiple cultures together, which the authors argue is impossible under transnationalism as these diversities are crushed in the creation of the universal. My subjects capture the arguments of the authors best, and do not erase their messaging against universality and the role of nationalism and the nation-state in the shaping of gender.
Written by Anna Johnson, Fall 2025
Decolonizing the history of Chicanos and Latinos in San Luis Obispo means looking closely at how power, privilege, and exclusion have shaped both the city’s story and its present-day realities. The historically whitewashed image of San Luis Obispo hides the deep contributions of Chicano residents who have long worked, studied, and organized here. From agricultural labor to student activism, their histories are often left out of official archives and public memory, most recently observed by me; Cal Poly’s Special Collections and Archives. This erasure isn’t accidental; it stems from colonial systems of knowledge that privilege white institutional narratives while sidelining the experiences of other communities.
Decolonizing this topic is about questioning who gets represented in the historical record, who is allowed to speak for the community, and how stories of a place are told and preserved. This means addressing the living social and economic effects of colonization outside of historical archives. The high cost of living, racial bias in housing and employment, and limited cultural representation have all contributed to the challenges Chicanos are facing here. Decolonizing this topic involves more than recovering lost documents; it’s about building spaces where the community can represent itself on its own terms. Grassroots archives like the Chicano SLO Archives are examples of this work. They challenge the authority of institutions by centering community voices, experiences, and identities that have previously been ignored. In this way, decolonization becomes both a historical correction and an active practice of justice and representation. Creating an independent archive can alleviate these discrepancies, but utilizing reparative metadata practices in descriptions and categorizing can truly amplify this work. This could potentially look like culturally accurate subject headings, crediting community storytellers, and prioritizing Chicano epistemologies.
Using her observations of the United Nation's Fourth World Women's Conference held in China in 1995 as a foundation, the author examines the history and current situation of Latinas and attempts to place them in a global context. After examining the goals, objectives, and atmosphere of the Conference, she analyzes the Chicana feminist movement and its legacy and how Chicanas have struggled to relate to the Conference and its human rights platform. She then profiles U.S. Latinas and presents data on their reality in today's world. The response to U.S. expansionist policies and the Americanization process is examined and related to the Chicana feminist movement and its legacy. An important synthesis for students and researchers in Ethnic and Race Relations and Women's Studies.
Intersectional Feminism
Diaspora
Machismo
Colonialism
U.S. Chicanas and Latinas Within a Global Context explores the historical development of Chicana identity and activism within intersecting structures of race, gender, and colonial power. The book situates these struggles within a global framework, connecting U.S. Chicanas to the broader diasporic experiences of Latina women globally. Through this lens, it reveals how colonial legacies and imperialist histories have shaped the Chicana experience while highlighting forms of resistance, solidarity, and cultural affirmation that emerged in response.
WorldCat and the publisher of the book had the same description. The publisher’s summary presents the text as historically grounded while my version interprets it as a critical lens on how Chicanas combat colonial legacies through resistance, solidarity, and cultural affirmation. This more theoretical framing may guide researchers interested in decolonial feminism, diasporic identity formation, and global systems of power to view the book not just as a historical account, but as a text about reconstruction of identity beyond colonial boundaries. While I was unable to find a full description from Cal Poly; I will compare their subject categorization to mine. Cal Poly's subject for this book is Hispanic American women, Mexican American Women, and social conditions while mine were intersectional feminism, diaspora, machismo, and colonialism. Cal Poly's subjects are identity focused while the subjects I chose are ideological. My subjects may help researchers who are looking for culturally relevant materials and guide more diverse researchers into the material than the Cal Poly subject categorizations.
Written by Mia Lawrence, Fall 2025
The legacy of freedom of formerly enslaved people in the United States after the American Civil War and after slavery had ended is often centered around a narrative of a ‘one great man’, President Abraham Lincoln. This guide provides resources that realigns the view of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 and the start of the Civil War within the context of the constant and successful slave revolts in the American South throughout slavery. This decolonial work reframes the agency of enslaved peoples and their role in forcing the hand of not only Lincoln, but also Congress towards outlawing slavery in the states, prompting the start of the Civil War.
To begin doing this work, we will look to scholarship that centers enslaved peoples. This can include themes of autonomy, self determination, organizing, and communication networks. This work spans slavery, Emancipation, the Civil War, and can also include the Reconstruction period. The pitfalls that exist within the field include the pitfalls of much of U.S. history, which is the deification of ‘the great men of history’ and the exclusion of Black Americans in the construction of the nation.
This is all too clear in the way President Lincoln permeates within popular media as well. The image of Lincoln as an anti-rascist persists, like his depiction by Daniel Day Lewis in the 2012 film Lincoln, for which he received an Academy Award, and continues to represent him as the hero who ended slavery because he thought it was right. This is an image those in the U.S. are all too familiar with and the image that is still present in the catalogue.
Decolonizing this work means using sources that do not center Lincoln and additionally do not center the Emancipation Proclamation as the beginning of anti-slavery movements. This means pursuing the ostensibly simple task of centering enslaved peoples in the narrative. This is difficult work because of a lack of records, but not impossible. This lib guide should serve as a starting point for some of the stories of actual heroes, beginning before 1863 and localized on locations of enslaved life. What this also includes then is a reevaluation of daily life and the constant rebellion both quiet and loud for enslaved peoples. Slavery did not end all of a sudden, but rather was a long and constant battle.
Ward, Geoffrey C, Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana, Ken Burns, and Ric Burns. The Civil War: An Illustrated History. “Who Freed the Slaves?” Barabara J. Fields. First edition. New York: Knopf (1990).
This short article by American South Historian Barbara J. Fields synthesizes the dialogue on the seemingly simple question: Who Freed the Slaves? Fields presents the traditional narratives that either Lincoln or Congress freed the slaves, and she then offers the option that it was the slaves who freed the slaves. She recenters why Lincoln drafted and why Congress passed the Emancipation Proclamation, which is a result of the already existing war that was occurring because of the violent nature of slavery and the ongoing revolts. Fields directly challenges the idea that Lincoln freed the slaves and set a precedent in the field of African American and U.S. History for a shift in how Emancipation is discussed. This article is so short and yet so concisely details why it was not Lincoln who freed the slaves. That is because this is not a terribly complex concept, but rather it has just been hidden within academia.
Brown, Vincent. Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War. Cambridge, Massachusetts; The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2020. https://doi.org/10.4159/9780674242081.
Vincent Brown is a leading scholar in African American history and his recent release of Tacky’s Revolt details slavery as an active state of war. He furthers this to say that slave revolts exist as a part of this warfare. He presents slave revolts as a part of interconnected missions, highlighting the communication networks and highly organized effort of enslaved peoples fighting battles within a larger war. While Tacky’s Revolt took place in Jamaica, the fundamental thesis of this work is extremely important for understanding how to conceptualize and frame revolt, which can and should be applied to the U.S. This source does the work of reframing the timeline of the battle against slavery as being one that has existed as long as slavery has existed. This is antithetical to the U.S. narrative and extremely essential as a foundational text for this work of redefining what chattel slavery actually looked like.
Franklin, John Hope, Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolniana, and Loren Schweninger. Runaway Slaves: Rebels on the Plantation. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
An important part of this work is also highlighting all of the forms of resistance that existed at different levels. This book explores the ways in which enslaved people rebelled, ran away, and what they experienced after running away. In a small section, the authors look at “Day to Day Resistance”, highlighting how acts like “not complet[ing] their assigned tasks” are valuable forms of rebellion. This micro view of revolt is the opposite of the macro view of Lincoln. This book details the people who bravely rebelled and ran away, telling the stories of those who had and continued to fight against slavery. This illustrates the value in this work and the more complete stories that can be told when enslaved resistance is centered.
Constitutional history -- United States
United States -- Politics and government -- 1861-1865
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 -- Political and social views
In Lincoln's Constitution Daniel Farber leads the reader to understand exactly how Abraham Lincoln faced the inevitable constitutional issues brought on by the Civil War. Examining what arguments Lincoln made in defense of his actions and how his words and deeds fit into the context of the times, Farber illuminates Lincoln's actions by placing them squarely within their historical moment. The answers here are crucial not only for a better understanding of the Civil War but also for shedding light on issues-state sovereignty, presidential power, and limitations on civil liberties in the name of national security-that continue to test the limits of constitutional law even today.
The description was the same for each site that I used and this description really emphasized Lincoln’s morality and personal struggles. I tried to approach the description of this book with a more focused view of tangible laws and powers and less on the memory of Lincoln. I fear the existing description sets the reader up for a different kind of story of Lincoln and not a history of law and the American Constitution that must include slavery and enslaved people.
I was also surprised at the dichotomy of the subjects listed. The Cal Poly Catalogue has only included ‘Law’ in general and the book's own publisher has listed just American and Legal History, while Worldcat has included 14 subject headings. However, it is in these 14 headings that they range from just generic Constitutional History and USA to hyper specific subjects like ‘Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 Views on the constitution’. There seems to be a disparity in how Lincoln is placed, either being so generic to all of U.S. law, or extremely specific in the history of his life. Additionally, in a book about the Emancipation Proclamation and the Civil War, slavery was not mentioned once in the description or subject headings
Written by Darcie Shugart, Fall 2025
This lib guide highlights Indigenous environmental practices in San Luis Obispo County, California, and examines how these practices have supported the preservation of the region’s diverse landscapes and ecosystems. The guide centers the knowledge and stewardship traditions of the Chumash and the yak titʸu titʸu yak tiłhini (YTT), two Indigenous peoples whose environmental relationships continue to shape the local environment. This guide helps students and librarians find material related to the Chumash and YTT through indigenous-centered resources and terminology.
The Chumash and YTT have long kept sophisticated forms of land stewardship, including protection of coastal ecosystems and cultural burning. These practices have contributed to the health of ocean dunes, grasslands, oak woodlands, and other local environments. Despite their importance, Indigenous environmental contributions are often overlooked in mainstream environmental history, which tends to emphasize global policies such as the Paris Agreement or the Montreal Protocol. Re-centering Native environmental knowledge recognizes the deep historical and ongoing contributions of Indigenous peoples to sustainability and ecological balance.
This lib guide adopts a post-colonial approach to environmental stewardship, recognizing Indigenous knowledge as vital to California’s ecological future. The guide prioritizes materials authored by, created in collaboration with, or endorsed by Chumash and YTT communities, rather than relying primarily on state archives or institutions shaped by settler-colonial perspectives. Framing the guide through decolonization restores agency to Indigenous peoples in shaping their histories and environmental narratives.
While there are many different methodologies to approaching environmental stewardship, this guide uses the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) system as the Chumash and YTT peoples have embraced this mode of thinking. TEK refers to the system of beliefs and practices related to ecology carried through oral traditions. While many indigenous groups across the globe use TEK, it is a decentralized system: local groups have different traditions. Using TEK, this guide wants to centralize the Chumash and YTT peoples’ terminology and resources for students and librarians.
This guide identifies colonialism specifically as Anglo-American colonialism, reflecting the dominant cultural and political force in California’s history. Colonial policies outlawed many Chumash and YTT stewardship practices for generations. For example, cultural burning—once a central method for maintaining ecological diversity—was prohibited until the first locally sanctioned YTT cultural burn in 2024 at Johnson Ranch. Understanding this context demonstrates the need for postcolonial and decolonization methodologies that challenge settler-colonial narratives and support the revival of Indigenous environmental practices.
Colonial systems such as state-sponsored libraries and archives have long shaped which voices and histories are preserved, often silencing Native perspectives through selective documentation. This guide seeks to disrupt those patterns by centering Indigenous-led resources. Its goal is to elevate Native perspectives and provide a curated collection that supports post-colonial and decolonization approaches to environmental history.
Spanning the period between Spanish colonization and the early twentieth century, this well-argued and convincing study examines the histories of Spanish and American conquests, and of ethnicity, race, and community in southern California. Lisbeth Haas draws on a diverse body of source materials (mission and court archives, oral histories, Spanish language plays, census and tax records) to build a new picture of rural society and social change.A borderlands and Chicano history, Haas’ work provides a richly textured study of events that took place in and around San Juan Capistrano and Santa Ana in present-day Orange County. She provides a vivid sense of how and why the past acquires meaning in the lives that make up the historical identities she discusses. The voices of Juaneño and Luiseño Indians, Californios, and Mexicans are heard along the shifting faultlines of economic, social, and political change. This is one of the first truly multiethnic histories of California and of the West. It makes clear that issues of multiculturalism and ethnicity are not recent manifestations in California-they have characterized social and cultural relationships there since the late eighteenth century.
WorldCat Subject Headings
Américains d'origine mexicaine Terres Californie Santa Ana
HISTORY United States State & Local West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)
Indians of North America Land tenure California San Juan Capistrano
Mexican Americans Land tenure California San Juan Capistrano
Race
Rural communities
Rural society
Small town
Social studies
Southern California
Spanish colonies
Spanish language
Tax records
Theatre
West coast
Haas deconstructs American national identity by including historically excluded groups in her analysis of how identity evolved in Southern California. Drawing on traditional source materials such as mission and court archives, as well as census and tax records, Haas also incorporates oral histories to better represent ethnic groups that have been excluded from traditional archives. Classified as a work of Borderlands History, this book reframes how ethnic groups moved throughout the lands of the United States and Mexico.
Before reading the WorldCat version of the book’s summary, I created my own description of the book. In comparing the two summaries, I focused more on decolonial theory and adjusted my language to align with its principles. The WorldCat summary also emphasized decolonial theory but did not fully address the broader goals the theory seeks to achieve. In contrast, I aimed to highlight how decolonial theory functions within the book.
While the world cat list includes many subjects related to its themes, the subject list did not address what the book is about—borderlands history. There were subjects, however, that I would have added and that the WorldCat version included. For example, the WorldCat version classified the work under HISTORY — United States — State & Local — West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY). It would be useful to researchers to also include a subject heading for the northern Mexican states to better represent the book’s setting.
My version better supports borderlands historians because it directly engages with the discipline. Since borderlands history is an umbrella term, narrowing the subject headings into this discipline would be especially helpful for researchers.
Written by Jett Montes, Fall 2025
The state of Israel was recognized by the United Nations in November of 1947 but was officially established on May 14th, 1948. During this same period (and a little after, in 1949) zionist militias solidified their new state by massacring, dispossessing, and destroying Palestinians villages an event referred to as the Nakba or the Catastrophe. This resulted in the dispossession of up to 750,000 Palestinians (one third of the Palestinian population). However, as Rabea Eghbariah, a Palestinian human rights lawyer and legal scholar states in his article “Toward Nakab as a Legal Concept” responds to the Nakba classified as a historical event, “But the Palestinian Catastrophe—the Nakba—remains an ongoing and unrelenting ordeal, one that has never been resolved but rather managed” (Eghbariah 889). In his article, Eghbariah critiques the use of the word Nakba as a historical event and argues we must recognize the Nakba never ended, rather the process of the Nakba has been ongoing since the beginning of the zionist militia massacres in 1947. Although his article focuses on the Nakba as it relates to the law, I find the issues he finds of the portrayal of Palestine in the law similar to the way Palestine is catalogued. In particular, his article critiques the lack of adequate language to describe the subjection of Palestinians and one of the reasons he points to is how the current legal concepts often “risk distorting the variegated structure behind the Palestinian reality, and their invocation has often muted Palestinian articulations of their own experience” (Eghbariah 888). In library metadata and cataloging of Palestinian media it often lacks adequate language to describe Palestine and Palestine’s. Similar to Eghbariah’s analysis of Palestine in the legal system, I argue the lack of adequate language stems from not allowing Palestinians to articulate their own experience and the failure of institutions to recognize Israel as a settler colonial project.
Despite Israel’s colonial reality, from its inception and during its establishment, Israel has been framed as a net positive for Jews, the West, and the countries surrounding Israel. It’s this framing that this lib guide seeks to decenter by addressing the issues with the positive framing, language, and curriculum that is deployed in academic, political, archival, and social settings regarding Israel. This framing incorporates an Orientalist approach by ignoring the deep-rooted connections Palestinians have to the land and excludes them from discussions regarding the establishment of the state of Israel. Despite the goals of the state being clear from its founders, early Zionist literature, and colonial forces that supported its establishment, like the British, Israel has succeeded in branding itself as a decolonial movement, allowing Jewish people, mostly from Europe, to return to their holy land to escape the persecution they faced in Europe. This narrative of following a decolonial period gained deep legitimacy after the holocaust. All objections by Palestinians and other Arab or Muslim states to the settlement of Jews on Palestinian land was branded as an ancient hatred that Muslims and Arabs reserve for Jews. In reality, as I stated before, the state of Israel’s goal has always been a colonial one, following a similar strategy to the settler colonial project enacted in the Americas. To further exemplify this, I point to Rashid Khalidi’s The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 where he breaks down the framing of the conflict.
The second track for changing existing perceptions of the conflict— highlighting the great imbalance between the Palestinians and the powers arrayed against them—involves showing that the Zionist movement was almost always on the offensive in its effort to achieve mastery over an Arab land. Presenting this reality otherwise has been central to the discursive advantage achieved by Zionism, in which Israel is David to the Arab/Muslim Goliath. A more recent fiction casts the conflict as one of two peoples, or even two states, in an equal fight, sometimes framed as right vs. right. Even then, the accepted version is that Israel has constantly wished for peace, only to be rebuffed by the Palestinians (“there is no partner for peace,” as the phrase goes, leaving Israelis, the victims, to defend themselves against unjustifiable terrorism and rocket fire) (Khalidi 242).
Khalidi decenters the notion that Israel and Palestine are in conflict with one another, as this implies that they are on equal footing, or two states engaging in a conflict that is rooted in ancient rivalries between Muslims and Jews, Arabs and Israelis.
Despite countless scholarship showing the contrary, the Library of Congress (LoC) and other library catalogues I have researched, like Cal Poly’s, continues to reinforce three key notions, 1) There is no modern history of Palestine, only ancient land of Cannan 2) Palestine does not exist in the context of Israel and 3) Palestinian people exist but they only exist as a ethnicity under Arabs and not as a people connected to any particular land. Thus, legitimizes Israel’s settlement of Indigenous Palestinian land by erasing any connection Palestinians have to the land. Furthermore, this is based on the premise that Israel is inherently good for all effected by its establishment (the west, Jews, and surrounding nations). However, if institution like LoC fail to apply a critical colonial lens to Israel through cataloging and metadata, the three tropes I’ve listed above will be reinforced and Israel will continue to enjoy its status as a decolonial project. More importantly, acknowledging the process of cataloging can never be neutral creates space for reform that includes Palestinians as Indigenous to the land of Palestine and acknowledge the ongoing Nakba by the state of Israel. As Khalidi stated, even when it is acknowledged that there is a conflict between Israel and Palestine, it is posed as two nations on equal footing, Israel being the tamed, democratic, and progressive state practicing compromise and peace with its Arab neighbors, and Palestinians as barbaric, extremists, and terrorists who only seek to destroy Israel. I offer a scholarship in this lib guide to reframe the “Israel-Palestine Conflict”, moving away from language like conflict and moving towards Israel as a settler colonial project, an apartheid state, and guilty of enacting genocide against the Palestinian people. The deep-rooted issue that has dominated the discourse of Palestine has never been a lack of evidence; there has always been evidence of Israel’s crimes and intention of settling, rather the issue lies in the failure to place Israel in its settler colonial context. As Edward Said states in his article “Permission to Narrate”, “Facts do not at all speak for themselves, but require a socially acceptable narrative to absorb, sustain and circulate them” (Said 34).
No issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict has proven more intractable than the status of the Palestinian refugees. This work focuses on the controversial question of the property left behind by the refugees during the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Beyond discussing the extent of the refugees'losses and detailing the methods by which Israel expropriated this property, the book also notes the ways that the property question has affected, and in turn been affected by, the wider Arab-Israeli conflict over the decades. It shows how the property question influenced Arab-Israeli diplomacy and d
No issue in the Arab-Israeli conflict has proven more intractable than the status of the Palestinian refugees. This work focuses on the controversial question of the property left behind by the refugees during the first Arab-Israeli war in 1948. Beyond discussing the extent of the refugees'losses and detailing the methods by which Israel expropriated this property, the book also notes the ways that the property question has affected, and in turn been affected by, the wider Arab-Israeli conflict over the decades. It shows how the property question influenced Arab-Israeli diplomacy and discusses the implications of the fact that the question remains unresolved despite numerous diplomatic efforts.
From late 1947 through 1948, more than 726,000 Palestinians—over half the entire population—were uprooted from their homes and villages. Though some middle class refugees were able to flee with liquid capital, the majority were small-scale farmers whose worldly fortunes were the land, livestock, and crops they left behind. This book tells for the first time the full story of how much property changed hands, what it was worth, and how it was used by the fledgling state of Israel. It then traces the subsequent decades of diplomatic activity on the issue and publishes previously secret UN estimates of the scope and value of the refugee property. Michael Fischbach offers a detailed study of Israeli counterclaims for Jewish property lost in the Arab world, diplomatic schemes for resolving the conflict, secret compensation efforts, and the renewed diplomatic efforts on behalf of property claims since the onset of Arab-Israeli peace talks.
Based largely on archival records, including those of the United Nations Conciliation Commission of Palestine, never before available to the public and kept under lock and key in the UN archives, Records of Dispossession is the first detailed historical examination of the Palestinian refugee property question.
"From late 1947 through 1948, more than 726,000 Palestinians - over half the entire population - were uprooted from their homes and villages. Though some middleclass refugees were able to flee with liquid capital, the majority were small-scale farmers whose worldly fortunes were the land, livestock, and crops they left behind. This book tells for the first time the full story of how much property changed hands, what it was worth, and how it was used by the fledgling state of Israel. It then traces the subsequent decades of diplomatic activity on the issue and publishes previously secret UN estimates of the scope and value of the refugee property. Michael Fischbach offers a detailed study of Israeli counterclaims for Jewish property lost in the Arab world, diplomatic schemes for resolving the conflict, secret compensation efforts, and the renewed diplomatic efforts on behalf of property claims since the onset of Arab-Israeli peace talks." "Based largely on archival records, including those of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP), never before available to the public and kept under lock and key in the UN archives, Records of Dispossession is the first detailed historical examination of the Palestinian refugee property question."--Jacket.
Cal Poly Subjects
Records of Dispossession traces Palestinian refugees property that was stolen by Israel in 1947 through 1948 and how this property followed the establishment of the state of Israel to modern contexts. This book focuses on how the property of refugees influences diplomatic relations between Israel and Palestine, discreet compensation efforts by Israel, and how the question of refugee property is one that remains unanswered in any legitimate way. Fischbach uses archival records and more importantly the recent release of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP) records that were locked away in the UN archives, to give a detailed history of the question of refugee property as it relates to Israel's settler colonial project.
Both World Cat and Cal Poly used the publisher’s description of the text but they used different parts of it, choosing to include some parts and leaving out others. To be completely honest, I found this exercise to be difficult because I wasn't sure if I should include why a book about Palestinian refugees is so important when discussing Palestine considering they are living proof of the Palestinians right of return as outlined by the UN. So, the fact that these refugees who are still alive, still remember the homes they were forcibly displaced from and continuously displaced from also have physical documents to prove what land is theirs, what properties is theirs, and the details of their properties is an extreme threat to the state of Israel as we understand it today. However, that importance was omitted from the description. Instead, the description focused on what these documents mean for the "Arab-Israeli Conflict" as a whole.
Despite this difficulty I faced when writing my description, I found the descriptions used by the other cataloging forums to be inaccurate in its framing of the "conflict". Despite discussing how Israel has appropriated, stole, and displaced half of the Palestinian population from their land, the descriptions fail to recognize this as a part of Israel's settler colonial project. Rather it attributes it to the "Arab-Israeli Conflict" and the wars between Arabs and Jews. Despite being a very informative book about the Palestinian refugee’s property, the descriptions fail to outline this theft as apart of Israel's intention to settle on Palestinian land and instead frame it as a result of the "Arab-Israeli Conflict".
Now to discuss the subjects used to describe the book. I was unsurprised to see some subjects but shocked to see others. For example, the publisher’s subjects might as well have just put history as the only subject because the subjects are so broad and engage in symbolic annihilation by situating this book in just History and nothing more. Ignoring the fact that this book details how the "Palestinian refugee problem" is a continuous issue until this day. One of the main points that is made clear in the description is the fact that this book details how the Palestinian refugees continue to emerge in discussions about peace, solutions, diplomacy, and resistance. While the World Cat subjects were abundant some hit the mark while others were also engaging in symbolic annihilation of Palestinian refugees by situating this book as a history book. The same can be applied to Cal Poly's subjects considering it the same as World Cats, only reduced to six subject headings instead of twenty-three.
In addition to the symbolic annihilation that is perpetuated by the subject headings, it also fails to acknowledge how such a text contributes to Archival studies considering these documents were gathered in the 1950s, locked away in New York, far away from Palestine and Palestinians, and were only released four decades after (around the later 1990s early 2000s from what I understand). Furthermore, there is no mention of any type of colonialism, genocide, forced displacement of Palestinians, and the Nakba. Despite the description acknowledging the Nakba is an event that happened which resulted in the Palestinian refugee’s properties to be stolen by Israel, the subject headings fail to mention it.
Written by Iyad Jamaly, Fall 2025
The land that is now San Luis Obispo County is also the traditional homeland of the Yak Titʸu Titʸu Yak Tiłhini Northern Chumash Tribe (Ytt). Based on their records, the Ytt Northern Chumash trace their history on these lands back 20,000 years. Throughout their long history, the Ytt Northern Chumash developed a rich, complex spiritual worldview that served to strengthen their connection to their homeland. Sharing similarities with many other Northern California Indian religions, the Chumash believed in a deeply spiritual and animated environment and held sacred numerous physical sites throughout their territory. In addition, important shamanistic and healing rituals have also been documented, revealing organized practices that date back centuries. Despite this cultural and spiritual heritage, there are numerous problems with the historical archiving of Ytt Northern Chumash society, particularly in relation to religion. When dealing with Native American religions, archives, libraries, and other learning depositories tend to reflect a severe bias against the traditional religious beliefs and practices of the Ytt Northern Chumash. Part of a larger problem regarding the classification of Native American religions, much of the spiritual practices of the tribe are relegated more to the realms of folklore or mythology rather than the more accurate spheres of spirituality and religion. This classification reflects a colonial history, where Europeans determined that Native religions were too primitive to be deemed worthy of the category and instead dismissed these belief systems into the realms of pagan superstitions. While this derogatory label is no longer utilized within academia, the labels of folklore and myth continue to serve this colonial legacy.
Another factor that needs to be addressed by one engaging the metadata on this topic with an intentionally de-colonial approach is the issue of the mission system and its plethora of documentation. Unfortunately, much of what is popularly understood regarding the traditional beliefs of Native Americans comes from a history of colonialism. Written sources, penned almost exclusively by Europeans, make up the vast majority of archival material. What one is left with then is a European understanding of Indigenous beliefs, often prone to misconceptions and cultural biases; the systemic harm of this archival failure requires one to take on a decolonial approach. Following the imposition of Christianity upon the Indigenous populations of the Americas, Native religion began to look decidedly different. There existed a spectrum of nominal Christianity, syncretized faith, total adherence to traditional beliefs, as well as genuine conversion. This reality is oftentimes not reflected within the historical record. Instead, one is presented with a very simplistic understanding of Native religious life under the mission system. One is inundated with a litany of baptisms, weddings, and funerals that do not fully encapsulate the truth of the matter. These sources are very important for research in the history of Indian-missionary relations, but they can’t be looked at in a vacuum. Founded in 1772, Mission San Luis Obispo has a long, complex history of involvement with the Ytt Northern Chumash Tribe. While efforts have been made to address historic injustices through reparations, the mission archives are in need of renewal.
The remarkably accurate original translations of Native American myths from one of 19th-century America's foremost linguists.
This book recounts the tales told to Jeremiah Curtin by various Indigenous tribal leaders.
The remarkably accurate original translations of Native American myths from one of 19th-century America's foremost linguists.
Native American mythology shows vestiges of religious concepts already old when the Egyptians evolved their form of worship. This volume offers an unusual collection of myths from two Native American cultures, the Wintu and Yana, recorded and translated in the 1880s by Jeremiah Curtin, one of the outstanding American linguists of the later 19th century. Because Curtin sought out storytellers who were not influenced by other cultures, his translations offer remarkably accurate accounts of the fundamental beliefs of Native Americans.
In his introduction, Curtin explains the profound antiquity of these myths of creation, which preserve some of the earliest religious expression. He also provides an unflinching account of the appalling genocidal attacks on the peaceful Yana by white Californians in the 1860s. Because the Yana became extinct, Curtin's rendering of some of their important myths is an especially valuable contribution to contemporary understanding of Native American mythology.
Creation Myths of Primitive America, translated by Jeremiah Curtin, provides an impressive collection of creation myths from the Wintu and Yana tribes of California. Adding to the sphere of Indigenous religion and spirituality, Jeremiah Curtin’s translations provide a valuable resource for learning more about the rich spiritual traditions of these California tribes. Passed down for centuries as oral histories, these stories reflect tribal understandings of creation, moral tales, and philosophical input.
In crafting my description, I attempted to remedy what I felt were some serious errors in the descriptions provided by the other resources. In particular, those offered by Cal Poly and WorldCat were especially lacking. With both of these descriptions being no more than a sentence, they present the book as a collection of fables bound together by Jeremiah Curtin. The emphasis of both descriptions is placed on the importance of the translator, Curtin, rather than on the actual Indigenous content of the book. While lengthier, the description from the publisher falls into a similar trap as well; to their credit, Bloomsbury does provide a more detailed description regarding the specific cultures written about in the book. However, the description that the stories in the book reflect the fundamental beliefs of Native Americans is a serious oversimplification; this phrasing assumes that all Native Americans have the same or very similar belief systems when, in actuality, there exists an extremely varied diversity of belief systems, and this book only deals with two specific peoples. In addition to shifting the focus to Indigenous content, I also sought to be specific that these are tales from Indigenous spirituality and religions, rather than relegating them to the realm of folklore that past descriptions have relied on.
Written by Macean Carr, Fall 2025
This LibGuide offers resources for your consideration when beginning to approach research involving or focusing on women in agriculture. In consideration of the loss of a large percentage of our farming labor force due to mass deportations by the current administration, I see it plausible that there may be a renewed academic interest in the power of our agricultural labor force, and am interested in how structural misogyny has erased the female population of said force. For this LibGuide section, I will be focusing on Women in Agriculture and how they are perceived and processed in academia, particularly in consideration of how their contributions to developing technology and their role in farm labor activism is underdescribed, misattributed, and structurally misplaced.
The phrase ‘women in agriculture’ is broad and may appear difficult to define. Placing parameters around a population, especially women in agriculture, is complex, as this concept may include people who don’t expect to be grouped here. In their libguide, Prairie View A&M includes resources for female landowners, women who work in business that is adjacent to the agriculture industry, women who are studying and interested in agricultural entrepreneurship. Most of the developing resources so far, those that have been easily discoverable, have defined Women in Agriculture as those who own the land. Notably, there is a silencing of women in agriculture who do not have the privileges of owning land. The labor involved with the agricultural industry is inseparable from the trillions of dollars the market is valued at, and yet the tangible explanation of the source of this labor is structurally and purposefully hidden due to colonial resource extraction. Female undocumented farm laborers face a multitude of barriers in being seen and understood as core to the agricultural industry specifically, despite their labor serving as the basis for the trillions of dollars of development. All women who interact with the agricultural industry, whether that be landowning farmers or ranchers, researchers of entrepreneurs, or documented and undocumented laborers deserve to see themselves in the research and continual development of the agricultural industry.
Women in agriculture, as a concept, spans across a variety of subject headings. It is precisely that lack of centralization, as well as the misplacement of proper headings, that allows for the work these women do to be disappeared in such a way as to allow for the overarching narrative of the development of the multi-trillion dollar agricultural industry to be continually hegemonically masculinized. As illustrated in some of the resources found below, many women do not consider themselves to be women in agriculture despite owning and operating farms, or working to produce for the agricultural industry. This issue specifically effects farm owners, operators, or ranchers, because of marriages and partnerships that follow a patriarchal structure, and therefore direct ownership to the male counterpart of the scenario, despite labor separation being on an equal scale. For farm laborers, the issue of ownership often prevents them from even being considered as producing within the industry. These perpetuating narratives are increasingly harmful, but may have a variety of potential solutions.
To first explain why decolonial work must be done when understanding women in agriculture, I offer up the narrative of the United Farm Workers movement. Many developing academics can place Cesar Chavez as the head of the UFW, but fewer are aware of the long-lasting impacts of Dolores Huerta, especially those with academic knowledge outside of the fields of North American History or Ethnic Studies. The rejection of Huerta’s long-lasting impact on farm labor in America illustrate a dire need of reframing women in agriculture and their impacts as to be incorporated entirely into agricultural development as a whole. This need may be satisfied by creating archives for women's impact in agricultural development, to reject the erasure they face in their field, but further through analyzing where texts on women are placed within the library, and what they are surrounded by.
In attempting to understand the historical and conceptual issues with beginning to decolonize this topic, we must understand the process through which this labor is eliminated from any and all institutional records. Though farming and agriculture at large have not historically been explicitly gendered fields, in cataloged history women are rarely titled sole operators or developers of agriculture land or industry. As gender was decided important for the Census of Agriculture as of 1978, and as later multiple operators were permitted to be listed on any given landplot, there has been an increase in recorded female farming and development. What this does not illustrate is the impact women have had consistently throughout the expansive history of agricultural development. These following resources will illustrate the methods employed that have caused this systemic annihilation of women in agriculture.
“This book aims to expand feminist theory to include the study of rural women, while recognizing that many rural women no longer depend exclusively on agriculture or the land for their livelihoods. It emphasizes the depth and value of women's knowledge with the natural environment.”
“Applying a feminist and environmentalist approach to her investigation of how the changing global economy affects rural women, Carolyn Sachs focuses on land ownership and use, cropping systems, and women's work with animals in highly industrialized as well as developing countries.Viewing rural women's daily lives in a variety of circumstances, Sachs analyzes the rich multiplicity of their experiences in terms of their gender, class, and race. Drawing on historical and contemporary research, rural women's writings, and in-depth interviews, she shows how environmental degradation results from economic and development practices that disadvantage rural women. In addition, she explores the strategies women use for resistance and survival in the face of these trends.Offering a range of examples from different countries, Gendered Fields will appeal to readers interested in commonalities and differences in women's knowledge of and interactions with the natural environment.”
Gendered Fields: Rural Women, Agriculture, and Environment by Carolyn Sachs works to decenter White, Western, upper-middle-class, rural women from feminist scholarship and illustrate the methods and practices rural women employ to survive in an environment which subjugates them institutionally. These women physically live in non-majority spaces, and theoretically are pushed away from any and all focal points of critical scholarship. Sachs employs research from the rural studies field, the writing of rural women, and interviews with rural women conducted by herself and other researchers to come to her conclusions. Rural women's intersectional identities consistently go unexamined by scholars of both feminist theory and rural theory, and Sachs asserts that this underexamination prevents feminist studies from achieving an interdisciplinary status. Throughout her work, Sachs illustrates Rural Women's role in the growth and production of the agricultural industry, as well as their role in the development of the global economy.
I was shocked to see that none of these resources listed this book under the feminist theory subject, as this is the first concept introduced on the book jacket, and a vast majority of the most well-known references are from feminist scholars. This book advocates for the inclusion of rural women into feminist studies, and somehow all of these descriptions missed that. My description focuses on the manner through which Sachs does her research, as well as her intent to call these women into the spotlight for feminist and rural studies, while the other descriptions emphasize the generational skill and ability of rural women to cultivate farmland.
Written by Molly Ford, Fall 2025
