Why Archives & Human Rights? Let the TAVP Interns Tell You.

Why Archives & Human Rights? Why TAVP?
Archives have long played a role in the field of human rights, but recently, there has been more interest in broadening the relationship between archives and human rights and re-envisioning the role, the function and even the definition of archives. Texas After Violence Project is part of this movement to rethink the nature of archives and and its potential role in community building. 

During Spring semester 2014, TAVP hosted five interns from the University of Texas at Austin through a partnership with the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Dr. Charlotte Nunes, one of the co-organizers of its working group on Human Rights and Archives. 

We asked the interns what drew them to the area of Archives and Human Rights and here is what they had to say:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lillie Leone, Plan II Junior at the University of Texas at Austin

Why Archives & Human Rights?

"I was interested in learning more about digital archiving because it is a very useful skill in this increasingly digitized world -- a skill that is applicable to a huge range of careers and that I am eager to learn.  

We are constantly bombarded with skewed images and distorted information and it is essential for the public to encounter first person and primary sources; the interviews conducted by TAVP go beyond statistics into the organic human experience of social issues affecting our country today. 

Although my Bridging Disciplines' focus is International Development, I am interested in human rights because the more "scientific" measurements of development are not only inextricably linked to the human experience, but ring hollow if removed from it. The study of human rights is pivotal to national development. 

Why TAVP?

"I was interested in TAVP because of the project's nature as a grassroots initiative to increase community awareness and discourse. It is extremely important to look at violations of human rights in a super power such as the United States; it is too easy to assume that violations don't occur in the world's most advanced countries.

And the TAVP interviews are priceless personal narratives; when historians look back, these oral histories will be the stories that truly matter. I have learned so much about the contradictions and tensions in local history from immersing myself in the  transcribing and formatting tasks."

TAVP in the Classroom: International School of the Americas Hosts Year-Long Course

Photo of students from International School of the Americas in San Antonio

TAVP in the Classroom: 

International School of the Americas Hosts Year-Long Course

Over the years, TAVP has had the pleasure of collaborating with educators at a variety of institutions. From St. Mary's University in San Antonio, to the University of Texas at Austin, to Southwestern University, we've marveled at the creative ways professors have incorporated materials into their lesson plans. 

But beginning in Fall 2014, TAVP is taking the collaboration to a new level and into a new arena: secondary education! 

We are pleased to announce an elective course offered at the International School of the Americas, a public magnet in San Antonio, for academic year 2014 - 2015. The course will be co-taught by artist Mark Menjivar and history teacher Ryan Sprott. 

Using video oral histories created by the Texas After Violence Project, the class will begin with an exploration of the capital punishment system through diverse perspectives. During the first semester, students will participate in guided encounters with the TAVP archive and related dialogue-based and research-based activities.

In the spring semester, attention will shift to examining artistic projects that focus on incarceration and capital punishment in order to find ways to artistically share the new narratives the students and instructors collectively develop. 

By the end of the year, the class will have produced its own artistic archive in response to their engagements with the Texas After Violence materials. 

We look forward to seeing where this educational journey will take us!

Visit our website for a list of courses incorporating TAVP materials.

First Person: TAVP's Scott Hollis from UT's iSchool

TAVP Intern Scott Hollis at home at a radio station

Scott Hollis is a Master's degree student in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin. He is working on his Capstone with TAVP this summer, helping us to upgrade our workflow and archiving systems and also producing podcasts. We asked Scott to answer a few questions as part of our First Person series, where we introduce the people behind the archive. 

First Person: TAVP's Scott Hollis from UT's iSchool

TAVP: So, you are currently a graduate student at the University of Texas' iSchool. What did you study as an undergrad and what are your studying now?

Scott:  I have a BA in Radio/TV/Film from the University of South Carolina, and an MA in the same field from Syracuse University. I've always had a big interest in music, which influenced my decision to pursue degrees in this field. While in college, hosting a radio program on the campus sation along with an internship with South Carolina public radio led to an interest in radio broadcasting and production. I followed this muse after graduating from SU by accepting a job at public radio station WSKG in Binghamton, NY, where I was employed for 16 years, hosting a jazz show and eventually being involved in nearly every aspect of daily radio operations. I am currently nearing completion of my MS in Information Studies, with a particular interest in archives

"If I stay here, my story will remind people..." : Thinking about Forgiveness in Rais Bhuiyan's Interview

Listen to Rais Bhuiyan talk about forgiveness

Tu-Uyen is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in Classics, Latin and Asian American Studies. She also concentrates in the Cultural Studies strand of the Identities and Communities Bridging Disciplines program. You can learn more about Tu-Uyen in our Meet the Interns post as part of our First Person series, introducing some of the people behind the TAVP archive. 

This post is part of a series titled Digital Archives Internship (also tagged as Archiving the Death Penalty) where TAVP interns publish their reflections on processing the TAVP collection. 

If I stay here, my story will remind people...": thinking about forgiveness in Rais Bhuiyan's interview
by Tu-Uyen Nguyen

There were mounting medical bills and no safe place to live. There was not enough money to buy medicine. The only way to survive was to work double shifts at Olive Garden and skip both lunch and dinner. This was the financial landscape in which Rais Bhuiyan lived after being racially profiled and attacked as a terrorist. Through it all, Bhuiyan was separated from his family and friends while he healed from the assault.

Structure and Agency: Learning about History through Processing TAVP's Archive

Sharla syncing Kristin Houle's video to her transcript

Sharla Biefeld is a junior Bridging Disciplines scholar at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in Women's and Gender Studies and Psychology. She is a Human Rights & Archives intern with TAVP this semester. Read more about Sharla in the Meet the Interns post!

This post is part of a series titled Digital archives internship (also tagged as Archiving the death penalty), where TAVP interns publish their reflections on processing the TAVP collection. Check back for future posts. 

Structure and Agency: Learning about History through Processing TAVP's Archive
By Sharla Biefeld

Formatting, transcribing, auditing, syncing: rinse and repeat.

This is the formula I originally thought my internship would follow. I imagined I would be assigned an interview, do the steps required, and finish by uploading it onto the Human Rights Documentation Initiative. However, I swiftly realized my internship would lead me on a more complex and enriching route.

First Person: Professor Reginald Byron teaching TAVP in Intro to Criminology

Professor Reginald Byron at Southwestern University

Reginald A. Byron is an assistant professor of sociology at Southwestern University. His current research interests include race and gender stratification in occupational, educational, and criminological contexts. His work has appeared in Work and Occupations, The Journal of Higher Education, Gender & Society, and The Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency.

This is the fourth post in our First Person series, where we introduce some of the people behind the TAVP archive. Professor Byron is one of a growing number of teachers and professors who are incorporating TAVP interviews into their courses. We asked him if he would answer a few questions about his experience using the TAVP collection in his class.

First Person: Professor Reginald Byron on Teaching TAVP in Intro to Criminology

TAVP: For which course did you draw on TAVP interviews?

Byron: I used TAVP interviews in my Introduction to Criminology class. College students, from first years to seniors, seem to have a growing interest in criminology and criminal justice. 

As I began teaching my students about the differing perspectives of plaintiffs and defendants in criminal cases, I looked for some short examples that would resonate with the students. Then I remembered the work of TAVP because of the outreach of Dr. Rebecca Lorins. These important interviews provided access to the real world complexity of those directly involved in the criminal justice system and their families.

Tedious Work with Big Results: The Technicalities of Digital Oral History

Jordan at the Final Cut Pro station, editing clips from Keith Brooks' interview

Jordan Weber is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin and a TAVP Human Rights & Archives intern this semester. Read more about Jordan in the Meet the Interns post! 

This post is part of our series titled Digital archives internship (also tagged as Archiving the death penalty), where TAVP interns publish their reflections on processing the TAVP collection. Check back for future posts. 

Tedious Work with Big Results: The Technicalities of Digital Oral History 
by Jordan Weber

Throughout the course of my internship experience with Texas After Violence Project, I have been fascinated and fully engaged with the topic and content of materials that TAVP has compiled over the course of its existence. As a burgeoning human rights advocate, I have felt honored to be able to hear, and, in some indirect way, experience, the deeply personal and important stories of ordinary Texans who have been affected by the death penalty. 

Despite my interest in the subject matter, I have been challenged by the detailed and tedious work that is often involved in oral history projects like TAVP. However, with guidance and practice, I have experienced the satisfaction of producing final transcripts and edited videos, and through this experience have learned about the significance of the vision of compiling a popular history of Texas and the death penalty.

I was first confronted with the minute amount of detail involved in oral history work on  my first day with TAVP earlier this year. Our first day, my fellow interns and I were familiarized with the task of formatting, which entailed taking completed transcripts and making them conform to a set of pre-fixed and standardized aesthetic guidelines, including rules for margins, for header and footer, for font size and even a rule for the use of em-dash to indicate a break in thought by narrator or interviewer. 

(click on 'Read More' below to read Jordan's entire post)

A screenshot of a portion of the formatted transcript of Keith Brooks' interview

Typing and Syncing and Saving, Oh My!

Jessica Rubio is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin and a TAVP Human Rights & Archives intern this semester. Read more about her in our Meet the Interns post!

This post is the sixth in our Digital Archives Internship series (also tagged as Archiving the Death Penalty), where TAVP interns publish their reflections processing the TAVP collection. Check back for new posts in the series.

Typing and Syncing and Saving, Oh My!
by Jessica Rubio

Entering what feels like another stage of this internship with TAVP, I've begun working on online, more public tasks that are housed on the Human Rights Documentation (HRDI) website, sponsored by the University of Texas Libraries. A software program called Glifos hosts the interview transcription, table of contents, metadata and other featured content. Even though the program requires some tinkering at times and can be time-consuming, it is much easier to understand and use than I initially expected it to be. Like anything, though, the system can be frustrating to use. 

One of the most important tasks is to sync all sections of the transcript to the digitized video, so that a researcher or general viewer can jump to any section at any given time. In order to sync a particular moment in the transcript to the words spoken, you must click the clapper (see circled button on the screenshot below) at the precise moment in the tape. This task requires patience, and, unfortunately, sometimes requires multiple attempts. 

Syncing Derrek Brooks' interview transcript to his video-recorded interview:
a "behind the scenes" look at the Glifos software

Amplify Archives Event Showcases Community-Archives-Based Teaching and Learning

Amplify Archives Event Showcases Community-Archives-Based Teaching and Learning
Guest blogger: Dr. Charlotte Nunes

Last Friday, the Texas After Violence Project hosted a panel discussion about how the TAVP oral history archive, made digitally available through UT-Austin's Human Rights Documentation Initiative, features in undergraduate teaching and learning at UT. The event took place as part of Amplify Austin, an exciting annual fundraising event supporting non-profits across the city. Participants convened at the Benson Latin America Collection, which is the physical home of the HRDI.

Rebecca Lorins, Acting Director of TAVP and organizer of the Amplify Archives event, kicked off the discussion by welcoming the audience and providing some background on the purpose and operations of TAVP, which aims to collect and archive oral histories that reflect how the death penalty affects communities throughout Texas. Kathryn Darnall, Graduate Research Assistant, followed up Rebecca's remarks with an explanation of the HRDI's mission to digitally preserve the archives of social justice movements.

Kathryn Darnall, Graduate Research Assistant at the
Human Rights Documentation Initiative, addresses
the Amplify Archives audience

Surviving 9/11 / Surviving Hate: Transcribing one Muslim American's Experience Surviving a Hate Crime and Resisting the Death Penalty

Tu-Uyen Nguyen transcribing the TAVP interview with Rais Bhuiyan

Tu-Uyen is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin, majoring in Classics, Latin and Asian American Studies and concentrates in the Cultural Studies strand of the Identities and Communities Bridging Disciplines program. You can learn more about Tu-Uyen in our Meet the Interns post as part of our First Person series, introducing some of the people behind the TAVP archive. 

This post is the fifth in a series titled Digital Archives Internship (also tagged as Archiving the Death Penalty) where TAVP interns publish their reflections on processing the TAVP collection. 

Surviving 9/11 / Surviving Hate: Transcribing One Muslim American's Experience Surviving a Hate Crime and Resisting the Death Penalty
by Tu-Uyen Nguyen

Ten days after the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, Aryan brotherhood member Mark Stroman attempted to kill three men he assumed were terrorists: Vasudev Patel, Waqar Hasan and Rais Bhuiyan. Only Bhuiyan survived to become a spokesperson against Islamophobia and the racial ignorance it represents. Ten years later when Stroman faced an execution date, Bhuiyan sued Texas Governor Rick Perry to stop Stroman's execution.

When my supervisor Rebecca first told me about the opportunity to transcribe eight tapes -- nearly eight hours -- of her interview with the Bangladeshi American, I was strangely ecstatic to volunteer because I knew I would be using my Asian American Studies major. It provides a critical framework for understanding what it means to be an American despite resembling the current enemy of the state. I had to learn how Bhuiyan's story is one representation of the Muslim American experience in the U.S. after 9/11.

In this clip, Rais describes the images of the USA he encountered before immigrating

First Person: TAVP Board Member Betty Gilmore

TAVP board member Betty Gilmore

First Person: TAVP Board Member Betty Gilmore

Dr. Betty Gilmore teaches courses in both the Dispute Resolution and Master's in Counseling Programs at Southern Methodist University. As a licensed clinical psychologist, she has worked in clinical, teaching, training, supervisory and consulting roles in a wide variety of settings including academic, workplace, private practice, community and health care. Over the past 15 years, she has delivered training programs and professional presentations nationally and internationally. Her areas of specialization include trauma, crisis management, conflict resolution and cross cultural issues. Her book The Darkest Hour: Shedding Light on the Impact of Isolation and Death Row in Texas Prisons, co-authored with Nanon M. Williams, will be published in 2014. 

Dr. Gilmore earned her bachelor's degree in psychology from Southern Methodist University and her Master's and Doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology in Los Angeles, California. She has received extensive training in dispute resolution through Harvard's Program on Negotiation, Pepperdine's Strauss Institute, CDR Associates, and the American Institute of Mediation. 

This is the third post in our First Person series, where we introduce some of the people behind the TAVP archives. 

Creativity in law and oral history: transcribing the story of prosecutor Sam Millsap

An excerpt from the transcript of Sam Millsap's interview

Lillie Leone is currently a junior Bridging Disciplines scholar at UT-Austin concentrating in International Political and Economic Development and majoring in Plan II Honors and Italian. Learn more about Lillie by clicking on our Meet the Interns post!  

This post is the fourth in a series titled Digital archives internship (also tagged as Archiving the death penalty), where TAVP interns publish their reflections on processing the TAVP collection. Check back for future posts. 

Creativity in law and oral history: transcribing the story of prosecutor Sam Millsap
by Lillie Leone

When I began transcribing and auditing the interview with Sam Millsap, I didn’t really know what to expect. I was inexperienced—both in transcribing and the issue of the death penalty in Texas—but I had gotten a taste of his interview when I formatted it the first session. Millsap is a prosecutor and the ex-DA of Bexar County, and you might expect his interview to be full of legal jargon, legal processes, and similarly dry descriptions of cases he has dealt with in his long career. You would expect wrong. 

On the contrary, Millsap goes into detail about especially formative parts of his life, such as going to UT, quitting a prestigious law firm, and running against an incumbent as the youngest DA of San Antonio.  He describes striking cases that are still pertinent 30 years later because they offer unique insight into unexpected aspects of the legal system, the worth of eye witness testimony, crossing ethical lines, and Millsap’s astounding ability to read people. 

[click on "Read more" after the jump to read the rest of Lillie's post!]

In this clip, Sam reflects on his role in the prosecution 
and eventual execution of Ruben Cantu, who he admits may have been innocent.
"I believed at that point in my life, naively, that eyewitnesses can be relied on." 

[To listen to more from Sam Millsap's interview, visit his narrator page at the TAVP website!]

Texas After Violence Project Interns Learn Digital Archiving Software

Texas After Violence Project Interns Learn Digital Archiving Software
Guest blogger: Professor Charlotte Nunes

Today, the Texas After Violence Project intern team had the opportunity to participate in a GLIFOS workshop with T-Kay Sangwand, Human Rights Archivist, and Kathryn Darnall, Graduate Research Assistant, both of the UT Libraries Human Rights Documentation Initiative.

TAVP interns becoming familiarized with Glifos, HRDI's digital archiving software
From left to right: Tu-Uyen Nguyen, Charlotte Nunes, Jessica Rubio, T-Kay Sangwand, Sharla Biefeld, Jordan Weber, and Lillie Leone. Image credit: Kathryn Darnall

First person: Meet TAVP alum Gabriel Solis

Gabriel Solis setting up an oral history for TAVP

First Person: Gabriel Solis

Gabriel Solis is a former TAVP volunteer and staff member. We recently uploaded his oral history interview with Scott Atlas, which he conducted for his master's thesis in Mexican American studies, and donated to the TAVP collection. On that occasion, we had the opportunity to talk to Gabriel about the story behind the interview, which can read in this post.

We also asked Gabe if he would answer a few questions about what he's up to now and how his oral history work has influenced his career trajectory.

TAVP: Tell us a little bit about your career trajectory after you left TAVP.

Gabriel Solis: Well, I became involved with TAVP just as I was completing a BA in philosophy at UT-Austin. I left TAVP when I decided to study for my master's in Mexican American studies at UT. After that, I moved to New York City, where I first worked as the project coordinator of the Rule of Law Oral History Project at Columbia University's Center for Oral History, and then as a Research Associate in the criminal justice program at NYU Law School's Brennan Center for Justice. I returned to Texas, and beginning in January 2014, I started work as a Post-Conviction Investigator at the Office of Capital Writs.

The many planets of an oral history archive: transcribing Joyce Easley's oral history interview

Sharla transcribing Joyce Easley's oral history interview

Sharla Biefeld is a junior Bridging Disciplines scholar at the University of Texas at Austin majoring in Women's and Gender Studies and Psychology. She is a Human Rights & Archives intern with TAVP this semester. Read more about Sharla in the Meet the Interns post!

This post is the third in a series titled Digital archives internship (also tagged as Archiving the death penalty), where TAVP interns publish their reflections on processing the TAVP collection. Check back for future posts. 

The many planets of an oral history archive: transcribing Joyce Easley's oral history interview
by Sharla Biefeld

I inserted the video into my disk drive, placed headphones on my ears, and opened a blank word document; then a tape began to play and the once silent headphones buzzed with conversation, and the blank page began to fill with the story of Joyce Easley’s life and her experiences as the wife of Charlie Brooks, Jr., the first person executed by lethal injection in the United States.

Same story; multiple perspectives: truth in oral history

Jordan at the TAVP office,
transcribing Keith Brooks' oral history interview.

Jordan Weber is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin and a TAVP Human Rights & Archives intern this semester. Read more about Jordan in the Meet the Interns post! 

This post is the second in a series titled Digital archives internship (also tagged as Archiving the death penalty), where TAVP interns publish their reflections on processing the TAVP collection. Check back for future posts. 

Same story; multiple perspectives: truth in oral history
by Jordan Weber

For the past several weeks, I have been working on transcribing the comprehensive interview with Keith Brooks, the second son of Charlie Brooks, Jr., the first man to be executed by lethal injection in Texas in 1982. The story immediately drew me in, because the Brooks family is based very near to the neighborhood where I grew up in Fort Worth. I was extremely interested in learning about the history of my own community and the ways in which this history influenced how the Brooks family, as members of my local community, interpreted Charlie Jr.'s past and their family's sense of place within our social and legal institutions. 

Listening to Keith describe the intimacies of perhaps the most defining event of his life--the legal state execution of his own father--was an extremely moving and valuable experience for me as a student, human rights advocate and member of our greater local community. 

Amplify Archives in Austin! : TAVP in the classroom

Amplify Austin 2014 is a 24 hour online fundraiser for Austin-area nonprofits.

TAVP will celebrate Amplify by amplifying our archive with a panel and reception.

Join TAVP for the launch at 5:30pm March 20 at our reception at HRDI

Amplify archives!

Amplify Archives: TAVP in the classroom
A reception and panel discussion, March 20, 2014
Save the date!

Date: Thursday, March 20, 2014 (to coincide with launch of Amplify Austin)

Time: 5:30 - 7:30pm

Panel: TAVP in the classroom 

Place: HRDI in the Benson Libraries (Benson Conference Room, SRH 1.208)
(Benson is located at 2300 Red River, at the intersection of Red River and Manor)

Sending TAVP oral histories into the classroom amplifies our archive! TAVP will celebrate the launch of Amplify Austin 2014 by hosting a reception and a panel discussion on the uses of the TAVP archive in the classroom. The event will be held at the Human Rights Documentation Initiative at University of Texas at Austin. 

Come learn about, support and amplify human rights archives in your backyard.  For more details, click the "read more" link now.

Visit the TAVP page at Amplify Austin (even if you can't make it to the event, you can donate at the TAVP page at the Amplify Austin website)

Remembering Ricardo Aldape Guerra: interviewer Gabriel Solis on interviewing Scott Atlas

Scott J. Atlas during his oral history interview with Gabriel Solis.

In 2011, former TAVP staff member Gabriel Solis was enrolled in a master's program in Mexican American studies at UT-Austin. It was during this time that he decided to pursue the capital case of Ricardo Aldape Guerra as the topic for his master's thesis. Aldape Guerra was a Mexican national living in Texas who was wrongfully convicted and given a death sentence for the murder of a white Houston police officer in 1982. He spent 15 years on death row in the 1980s and 90s before his release in 1997. The case garnered international attention and the intervention of the Mexican government. After his release, a telenovela was produced by Television Azteca in Mexico, and several books, articles, poems and other cultural products were produced. Aldape Guerra died shortly following his release in a car accident in Mexico. 

As part of his research, Gabriel Solis interviewed Scott J. Atlas who served as one of Aldape Guerra's appellate attorneys. The interview was done for Solis' master's thesis and simultaneously donated to the Texas After Violence Project. Solis' thesis, titled The trial of Ricardo Aldape Guerra, won the L. Tuffly Ellis Best Thesis Prize for Excellence in Texas History in 2011. A further outcome of Solis' research was Scott Atlas' donation of his personal collection of legal materials related to the Aldape Guerra case to the UT Libraries' Human Rights Documentation Initiative (HRDI). 

We recently had the chance to sit down with Gabriel to find out more about the story behind the interview. The conversation is part of our new "Interview Reflections" feature on the TAVP blog.

Atlas' oral history interview is TAVP's latest release: You can listen to the full interview now at the TAVP archive at HRDI.

Entrancement: transcribing and auditing TAVP interviews

Spring 2014 intern Jessica Rubio at work transcribing 

an interview with Sister Helen Prejean. 
Jessica also audited Derrek Brooks' oral history interview.

Jessica Rubio is a senior at the University of Texas at Austin and a TAVP Human Rights & Archives intern this semester. Read more about her in the Meet the Interns post!

This post is the first in a series titled Digital archives internship (also tagged as Archiving the death penalty), where TAVP interns publish their reflections processing the TAVP collection. Check back for new posts in the series.

Entrancement: transcribing and auditing TAVP interviews 
by Jessica Rubio

What is transcribing? Auditing? I would say that it is much, much more than listening to an interview and typing what you hear, or editing the transcript for mistyped words after the fact. These definitions touch the surface and describe the mechanics of the process. A deeper understanding entails realizing that you are the mode through which an interview will find public attention and that you may be the first person to see it with fresh eyes. (click "read more" below the video to see Jessica's full post)

"There's a relationship that happens and I receive from it --
it's reciprocal; it's mutual"  (go to 2:38 to listen to a part Jessica cites)

-- Sister Helen during her TAVP interview, Dec. 3, 2013