By: HebatAllah Basala, ºÚÁÏרÇø Undergraduate Student
My archival research began with a question that was deeply personal to me. In a previous senior seminar course, I conducted archival research on Edwards Said and his significance in shaping modern Arab intellectual and cultural identity. As an Arab student, that project made me more aware of questions surrounding representation, historical memory, and whose voices are represented in institutional spaces. Entering the Queen’s College Archives, I wanted to explore a related question closer to home: If Arab students and other underrepresented communities have long been present on campus, how have they been represented or omitted within the history of ºÚÁÏרÇø itself? More specifically, I wanted to trace how demographic shifts at ºÚÁÏרÇø influenced campus culture, curriculum, and institutional priorities over time.
1941 white student organizations
Over the course of approximately 10 hours of research conducted in the ºÚÁÏרÇø Archives, I examined , , Phoenix , , student handbooks, and administrative records spanning from the 1940s through the 1980s. Working directly with original archive materials gave the research a uniquely immersive quality. Personally, the tactile nature of the research made the past feel alive and present in the moment. This was my favorite part of my research in the archives, as I felt privileged enough to be able to handle these delicate documents that provide such important insights and are a representation of previous students who attended this college.
1968 Demands
One of the most significant discoveries was the dramatic demographic and political transformation visible through the decades. The 1941 yearbook portrayed an overwhelmingly white student body, faculty, administration, and campus leadership. By contrast, materials from the 1970s and 1980s; revealed a campus in transition, one that is shaped by the implementation of open admissions across CUNY, the activism of SEEK students, and the growing presence of Black, Puerto Rican, Caribbean, and immigrant student organizations. Student newspapers documented protests against apartheid, debates over Israel and Jewish identity, activism surrounding affirmative action, and increasing demands for institutional representation in faculty. These records showed that changing demographics did not only diversify the campus numerically, but they also fundamentally altered the political and intellectual life of ºÚÁÏרÇø.
Seek memo and critique of admin
However, perhaps the most meaningful realization of my research was not what I found in the archives, but what appeared absent from them. As I continued my work, I began questioning the archives itself. Although archives are often treated as neutral factual documents of history, I came to understand that they are curated spaces. Someone decides what is preserved, what is categorized as historically valuable, and what is ultimately excluded. This realization especially was appearant as I examined archival materials such as the 1968 student demands document and the Campus Views section of the Phoenix student newspaper, both of which highlighted how student perspectives were document and preserved within the institutional record. In this way, archival research, began to feel surprisingly similar to present day social media, where both our systems of selective preservation and visibility that shape public narratives through what they choose to amplify and display to the general public.
This realization transformed my project. What began as an investigation into demographic and curricular change became a broader reflection on historical memory and narrative construction. I left the archives not with a definite conclusion, but with more questions than when I entered: Which communities remain underrepresented in institutional memory? Which voices had been omitted from Queen’s College historical narrative? And what responsibilities do researchers have in identifying those silences?
Diverse Commencement
Fortunately, this project has made me want to continue researching beyond the scope of this course. The archive did not simply provide answers. On the contrary, it revealed the politics behind who and what gets remembered, and who does not.