 Robin What? You know we have a job right? We're trying to do a thing here. Oh, geez. Okay. Give me a minute. Good evening and welcome to four-year reference I'm Robin Beaton Boat. I'm Ingrid Rutherford. I'm Casey Fox And we are some of your friendly neighborhood library and from here at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville It is thanks for waking me up y'all You're welcome It is so nice of all of you all to join us tonight We are back again to navigate the world of media and information literacy with the help of guest scholars But first I'd like to talk some more about my cat Okay, so we're on the internet and that's basically what the internet was invented for cats. All right So if you watch the first episode You'll probably remember the story of my cat tiger We found a snake in our house and tried to eat it You will probably not be surprised that a cat with this level of enthusiasm for consuming other animals He's a big guy just generally kind of big-boned, but let's be honest. He's fat and The vet has been working with us to we're working on with him on his diet But he is also on a little bit of a fitness journey and I believe we have some video It's going about as well as you would expect You know with everything going on in the world right now watching that cat spinning in a wheel and not getting anywhere feels like a pretty apt metaphor and But there's a lot of people Working very hard to move the dial on some really vital issues like tonight's guests Yes, we have some very special guests with us tonight to talk about reproductive justice. This is reviewer to our first guest tonight is Dr. Leah Hernandez She is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Utah Valley University Welcome to the show Thank you for having me super thrilled to be here. Cool. Well first Why don't you tell us a little bit about you and your work? Yeah, so my research interests lie at the intersections of health communication Gender studies and media studies so more specifically in a health communication context I researched gender violence violence against women more particularly women of color and also reproductive justice cool So over the first couple of episodes this When we were doing this reviewer to segment we sort of you know did Explored the concept of a reviewer to which is a thing a lot of academics understand I don't want to spend too much time on that definition of that trope this time But if if you could describe reviewer to in one word What would that word be? demoralizing That is an outstanding So playing the role of reviewer to tonight is Dr. Sarah de los Santos Upton. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Texas at El Paso Welcome to the show Hello, glad to be here. Yeah, and I always like to remind people the reviewer to that we have invited here is and we had Help me if I'm wrong Nothing like reviewer to So I hope not So Sarah, why don't you tell us a little bit about you and your work before we get you to started? Thanks, um, so I'm primarily interested in the intersections of border identity reproductive health and reproductive justice and environmental communication cool so um Let's see the question that you two will be discussing this evening is How can we better leverage reproductive justice and health and communication? Now I'm gonna let y'all take it away. I'll be back in just a little while for Q&A Awesome. All right. So for all of our amazing viewers out there Dr. Upton and I recently published an article entitled transgender migrant rights Reproductive justice and the Mexico-US border in the time of COVID-19 say that five times fast so in the article we talk a little bit about how violence against transgender women at the US Mexico border is fundamentally a violation of reproductive justice or put differently it's reproductive injustice and we talk a little bit about Roxanna Hernandez and Joanna Medina and the ways in which the media Framed their cases problematically the way in which the media used their dead names and Really just the way in which it was discussed and some of the harms associated with that. So Sarah Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself growing up in the US Mexico border lands and kind of how that shapes your approach to this topic? Thank you so much. Yes. I so I teach at the University of Texas at El Paso But I was actually born and raised in El Paso And so I feel a very deep connection to the border itself. It shapes Who I am in the world how I see the world the way I approach scholarship and So for me being here on the border and witnessing the Injustices that not only I think a lot of times when people think about reproductive justice They think about, you know, though a woman's right to choose to have control over her own body Which is incredibly important an important aspect of reproductive justice, but you know being here when Children were being separated from their parents. I Was witnessing a reproductive justice issue happening, you know in the place where I live and And you know attending Protests with other families thinking through what would it mean, you know to have our children taken from us? So I think you know, it's one thing too I was watching the news along with everyone else, but I was also here when Customs and border protection and ice were just dropping people off in the middle of the street on Christmas Eve to try to create a spectacle and crisis a media crisis So that they could paint this picture that you know migrants are here taking over the streets of El Paso when you know being from a border community that is welcoming to migrants and Flourishes because it's a migrant community. I know that that's not the case So tying it back, you know that it really illuminated and I know that you can relate to this this idea that reproductive justice goes beyond You know having autonomy over your own body, but it's about families As we've talked about with one another in in our research Going back to you know organizations like sister song have reminded us that Reproductive justice also includes that right to parent your children in safe communities. So we should be thinking about What kinds of environments Surround our communities how our Parents give an agency to parents and to stay with their children and not have their children taken away and When you're fleeing As is the case with the many of the transgender migrants that we were discussing in this article When you are fleeing a country because it is unsafe to be who you are and identify the way that you identify and just live freely You should be able to come and seek asylum and be protected instead of criminalized Instead of put into unsafe conditions in ICE detention centers And so we really need to think about reproductive justice Really broadly when we're thinking about it in a border context and just generally Yeah, thank you for that and you did such a great job. I think I'm Showing us what it's like from the vantage point of someone who lives there, right was born and raised there and is seeing this Regularly now for those of you all who aren't familiar with our research Sarah And I were both born and raised in Texas and have really spent the last what like five to seven years, right? thinking about Reproductive justice for women of color more particularly for Latina women Latina X individuals and also Latin American women and We were both really Inspired to work on this topic particularly when we started seeing news articles over the last several years about injustices both here and abroad and then also Recently at the border particularly for transgender migrants just to give y'all a snippet from our article There was one transgender migrants. Her name was Shakira Chile And when she arrived with her detention center She began having stomach problems and other associated health issues Coupled with the sexual trauma and persecution that she faced in both Guatemala and Mexico Her trauma was further compounded when she was in the camps and also further further compounded by COVID So I mean that's a whole other issue here that we may be able to touch on if we have time So she told a facility medical worker that she wanted to throw herself out of the window Which resulted in her being placed in solitary confinement and then the inhumane treatment just spiraled from there so Sarah, maybe we could talk a little bit here about How we see reproductive justice like informing how we see what's going on in the border particularly for Transgender women and transgender migrants well, I think We've talked a lot about In in conversation with one another but also in in our writing We've talked about the ways in which there should be coalition building building off of the work of karma Chavez this idea that It's necessary to build coalitions among issues that you know, maybe Previously we haven't thought about them as being Intimately connected, but when we think about migrant rights when we think about reproductive justice There is a lot of overlap there and if we can build coalitions among organizations working Follow the lead of the people on the ground who know what they're doing around these issues and work in in Collaboration in coalitions with one another. I think that that is a really important way to adjust to address the reproductive injustices at the the Mexico-US border and to center, you know, the most marginalized experiences like these experiences of Transgender migrants who are receiving really inhumane treatment in ICE detention centers I think it's important. We've talked about You know one small way to do that is to think about Where do you access your own reproductive health care and how accessible is the space? We've talked about this birth center in El Paso Luna Tierra that the the second that you enter the space, you know that People of all races are welcome in this space and people of all multiple different gender identities are welcome in this space and they're clear Through their use of signage in the clinic through their their use of language on form They're very clear and adamant about making sure that it's a space where People from different identity positions feel welcomed and I think that accessing care there versus a space that it is very Exclusionary to different people from different backgrounds is just one small thing That works You know in the service of a larger reproductive justice movement Yeah, and you know what really came to mind when you were saying that is It's really like this notion of culturally informed care Right the fact that you can go to a health care provider or a clinic or an organization that you know that you feel welcome And really that you have allies, right like not just someone to Run you in through your medical appointment in five to ten minutes, but someone that you can really entrust Your life to and I think that's critically important here, especially at the border, right as we've discussed when we have diverse patient populations from across the Americas and Different languages different cultural backgrounds. I mean of course we always talk about how Hispanic Latina or ex populations just get lumped into one big umbrella with very little nuance for any of the cultural differences and I can only think they're like how The experiences of transgender women could have been enhanced if the care was better if there were Health care providers or workers there that were working to advocate for them, right? Because as we talked about in our article Studies show that LGBTQ plus migrants are among the most vulnerable They're more likely to be assaulted and killed than cisgender migrants 88% of LGBTQ migrants are victims of sexual and gender-based Violence in their countries of origin and then that is exacerbated through the migration process and then two-thirds of them have suffered Several attacks during migration, right? So as we've talked about in a lot of our research, this isn't just a Reproductive injustice, although it is right, but it's also a Gross human rights violation too So so one thing I was thinking of that we could talk about too is like how we see this fitting under the category of Reproductive feminicidials, right? So why don't you tell us a little bit about that? Yes, so reproductive feminicidials builds off of the concept of Femacide and feminicidials so Femacide is broadly understood as the killing of Women because they are women Femacidial takes that a little bit further and talks specifically about the experiences of women in Latin America Who are who experience violence in multiple forms including Including but not limited to deaths so so things like Domestic violence would be a manifestation of Femacidial and the culture that Femacidial operates Within and reproductive feminicidials Is a concept that we introduced in our book That kind of extends this idea of feminicidial to talk about the ways in which women are punished The ways in which women experience violence Simply because of their reproductive capabilities So this can include we kind of talk about it as a spectrum on one side and it may involve the Being mistreated being harassed when you're trying to access reproductive health care Well, I think that that's a really common experience for for women for Gender non-conforming individuals many people can remember at least one health care experience where you were at least Treated rudely if not worse But then on the other end of that spectrum we have these large-scale societal issues like Violence against women like feminicidial Like the like police brutality is a reproductive justice issue It's an example of reproductive feminicidial because it's Denying parents the right to raise their children in safe communities and it's taking Children away from their parents whether they're young children whether they're grown adults It's still a reproductive justice issue Just as family separation is and so we talk about This concept of reproductive feminicidial kind of gives us the The language to talk about the ways in which These acts of violence that you know can be rhetorical or they can manifest in physical violence and the ways in which they Interfere with our ability to access reproductive justice and the way that they perpetuate injustice And and violence frankly Yeah, so let's do a little toss-up right because you are absolutely not demoralizing in the slightest and our friendship and everything We've worked on together can attest to that but over the last several years We've combined you know with our powers combined in the best captain plan at way We've combined our shared interests right and health communication Border studies under studies and even environmental calm too, right To really advocate on behalf of Gender violence and reproductive feminicidials as a health communication topic, right? So if reviewer two if I were to tell you that I didn't think this was a legitimate health communication topic Based on your lived experience and our shared research. What would you say? Oh, no reviewer would ever say What doesn't count as health communication just they definitely would um I think that it it's important to We have too limited A view of what help what counts as health what counts as health communication Um, and I think that it's important to think about health more holistically In something in a collaboration that um, you and I are currently working on with our colleague. Um, carlos fedin Uh, we talk about the ways in which Um Not being able to attend um school in a healthy safe environmentally safe, um conditions When we discuss, um, I won't go into detail here, but we discuss a case in alpaso where students Are being forced to attend. Um A school that is an environmental hazard and and that is an example of um It's reproductive justice to advocate for those students to have a safe campus to attend school Um, it is absolutely a health issue because there are documented Cases of health issues arising, um from having to attend these schools And so I think that when we think about health communication, we have to think about How do we ensure that? um Thinking about reproductive justice is a health communication issue. How do we ensure that? people are able to Are empowered to make choices, um about their own reproductive health are empowered to have As many children as they want or no children. Um, if they don't want to have children How are they empowered to raise those? Um Children in safe environments and safe communities so really thinking about You know what the work that reproductive justice feminists have done Um such as I'll I'll mention sister song again um They give us this framework for thinking through what counts as reproductive justice and therefore what counts as health communication and what do we need to do To meet health care needs holistically And respectfully yeah, absolutely and that ties in really well for the next thing I wanted to say right Comments we've gotten if I were a reviewer too How could we make? Requirements for journalists to cover this in a more sensitive way right? What about objective? fact-checking neutral journalism right because we've spent hours Years and on and on thinking about this right like what do you think is the role of? Journalism in this larger topic in context particularly when thinking about the framing of violence against transgender women Well, I think that um something that we're learning um, I'll just share an example from um a paper that we worked on for I believe it was for um national communication association conference but we found that When we were looking at the issue of um obstetric violence or obstetricians inflicting violence on the bodies of pregnant people birthing people We found that Many journalists were covering this. Um, not from a oh, I'm I'm objective I'm just presenting the facts to you. Nothing is objective. Everything is subjective. We know this um, but many feminist journalists went the step further to say To define the problem To offer examples. So, you know now we have a language now. We have a term obstetric violence that we can use to describe what's happening And then they talked about, you know, what needs to happen? What needs to change? What role did doulas play? in keeping birthing people safe during their birth experience um, and so I think that I mean we argue ultimately and we will continue to argue and continue to do this work but I think journalists have a responsibility instead of just producing um in our book we talk a little bit about this idea that Um, not all witnessing is the same. Uh, when a journalist produces a piece they might You know when they're presenting really grisly details of a case, but nothing beyond that they're they're creating voyeurs in their audience members Um, but they have the potential to really do the work Um to give us tools and strategies and knowledge That lets us go further as audience members and figure out. Okay. I don't like that. This is happening What's my role in changing it? What can I do? What information do I need? To make a positive change moving forward and I really think um, that that is an important role that they can and should play um in society absolutely Hey, thank you, but that was a great discussion. It's time for me to interrupt you with questions right so, um I guess the first question I would have is like, how do you feel like, uh, research in this area can uh In health communication generally or in these particular contexts help inform, uh policy Yes I think excellent I think it's it's so important for us to combine our efforts, right? So like academics and researchers working with local nonprofits joining together doing the work together and then attacking policy together, right? Like I use california latinas for reproductive justice as an example here all the time because The organization has so many like arms if you will in terms of community outreach and education and policy outreach And I think that's that's one of the missing puzzles here, particularly when academics do the research And then journalists are covering the research, but it feels like there isn't a lot of conversation among the three And I should say, uh, if you're out there listening if you're on youtube or facebook if you drop question in the comments We can uh, we can surface it here so that our scholars can answer um Another question I had then is with your, uh communication background, uh, how Does your approach then differ from other approaches to research on reproductive justice? Um, I can start off with that one and you can jump in whenever Yeah, but I think that you know, we're really looking at uh, when we look at media coverage, for example Um, and we're arguing that it's not objective that the way that we choose to Frame stories. Um, what headlines what descriptive terms we're using in the stories plays a role in how audiences receive Um those stories and so I think that by taking an a communication Um lens to these issues we can really Help to uncover Some of the the problematic framing of these issues in media representation, but then we also play a role in coming up with With terms, um, but something that I I love to share with my communication students. Um when we're talking about um The topic of sexual harassment is I like to tell them, you know, this term didn't used to exist So this behavior always existed um people experienced these things In their workplaces, but they didn't know What to do about it because there there wasn't a name. There wasn't a title. There wasn't Um a term that they could kind of rally around to describe this experience and then when the the term is coined It is powerful. You can Um make laws about it. You can file complaints about it. You can be trained on how not to do this thing Um, and so I think, you know words are powerful. We construct the the world around us with words and symbols That's what we believe is communication scholars. Um, and so I think that it really Helps us get at the foundation and root of some of these um issues, but I'm curious If there's anything you'd like to add. Yeah, yeah, no sarah. That was great. It also helps us look I think at the communicative like micro level practices that are happening Um between and among family members when trying to decide Um, they're like reproductive health trajectory like I've also done a lot of research in genetic testing and prenatal testing context, right and it also helps us look to at how um Patients and doctors and health care providers are making sense of all of these Factors as well. So it's like at a macro level. We have like the news, right? And then at the micro level we have like the actual conversations that are happening about health topics Cool I believe we have a question from the audience uh from teresa walker Is there a role for nonprofits who engage in emergency relief and other efforts and how can they be engaged? Great question sarah. Do you have any thoughts on that particularly in terms of like work you've done with organizations at the border? I think um I think my best answer to this question would be um, and I'm not sure I I know that I can't speak directly to the the person who um posed the question, but it reminds me of When we were when the issue of um Children in cages and These detention centers when it was first, you know becoming this Really publicized issue people wanted to help they wanted to do something and so we had people literally driving to a pass out with truckloads of Of food of toys of things that they wanted to give to these children Um, but you couldn't get in there. You couldn't give You you couldn't make donations of food or water or toys. Um, and so while these efforts were incredibly Kind Well meaning, uh, it wasn't what people on the ground needed at the time And so I think that there is absolutely a a place for these nonprofits to play a big role um And I think the best strategy is to talk to the people who are doing the work on the ground and figure out What do you need and how do we best support you? Um, and I don't know if that fully answers the question, but um That's just from from an experience that I had in the summer of 2019 that's just the the first thing that comes to mind Okay, we have another question from the audience. Um This is a long one I was hoping you could talk about how gun violence which I believe is still not counted or kept track of Fits into your findings. Does it play a large part in gender and reproductive violence or are there other influences that are greater? Oh, that's a good question I wouldn't necessarily say that there are other influences that are greater, but I think that um, it's It's part of the larger, um umbrella. We're working with here, right? So if we think about reproductive injustices is one strand intimate partner violence as another strand Gun violence and brutality as another strand. We can see how taken together Um, they all three of these factors are impacting families in radically negative ways. Um, and I remember when um George floyd was brutally murdered last year and we started seeing kind of like this larger radical racial awakening or racial consciousness And sara and I were touching base about it as we do and it's like well There there is research out there that looks at gun violence and intimate partner violence and how that impacts families But I feel like it's not necessarily something that um reaches the airwaves as much as it could or should Sarah, did you have anything else to add about that? No, I think you you covered it Cool So I have one more question. I'm going to ask you and then we'll let you go um Some people might have said that reproductive justice is a women's issue What do you feel is the role of men and non-binary people in reproductive justice? so I believe it was bell hooks who wrote the book feminism is for everybody, right? And I feel like if I could use that I would say reproductive justice is for everybody too. Um, Sarah, but go ahead. What do you want to add to that? Well, I would love to plug this organization that I really love, uh, latinx parenting um, they are on a mission to end what What they call chancla culture, which is this idea that If you if you grew up in a latinx family um, you probably heard jokes about la chancla the sandal that You're going to get hit with to make sure that you're behaving um, and so this culture is rampant and um and so the founder of um, leslie areola Hillebrand the founder of latinx parenting um, really talks about how we need to end chancla culture and we need to end adult supremacy and we need to treat children with respect and um, You know children are these people whose rights are violated all the time, but we don't talk about them They can't necessarily start their own social movement to get the rights that they deserve Um, and I believe that this I believe very strongly that this is a reproductive justice issue um and and the founder talks a lot about the ways in which uh legacies of colonialism inform this um desire or this you know wanting to To parent with this authority and control and violence whether it's violent words or actually You know using la chancla using the belt um, and so I think that I i'm currently taking a class with them right now a six week non-violent Decolonized non-violent parenting class and there are um many mothers in this class. There are non-binary parents There are fathers in the class and We all recognize this role that we need to play to ensure that If our students are gonna, I mean, sorry In teacher mode if our our children are going to grow up in Safe and healthy communities that starts in our home and if we're inflicting Violence upon them whether it's through spanking or through You know emotional abuse then that They're not experiencing a safe environment or a safe home And our family can't thrive that way and so I think that everyone in that That's just one small example of one issue where every single person whether you're a parent or not you can play a role in um treating children with dignity and respect and and working to create safe communities in safe environments Yeah, and I think sarah nailed it on the head too earlier when she said it's a more holistic approach, right? so it's advocating on behalf of um transgender non-binary queer individuals to have the reproductive healthcare that they need It's helping us get more access to and information about vasectomies, right for men and for families as opposed to um oftentimes women Bearing the burden of the birth control, right? So I think taken together these are all a lot of the smaller strands of some of the larger efforts in the movement that are really I think hoping anyone who has reproductive functions or may or may not parent in the future has what they need to make those decisions Great Well, this has been a fantastic discussion y'all. I'm so happy that you joined us to see things. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you and uh Look forward to seeing you again soon Thank you so much for having us. Yeah, so now uh to talk about some Really good resources you can use if you want to do research in this area We're going over to paris weyland with check this out Hey, all of our subscribers all the links of y'all welcome to the check this out segment Um for those of you who are new or just need a quick reminder This segment basically highlights our subject subject liaison and focuses on different aspects Of information and media literacy in relation to the subject at hand um today we're going to discuss information seeking and some things um Some thinking skills that we hope will encourage you to find reputable sources so that if you decide to participate In this conversation, you're doing so in a responsible and well informed manner. Okay Now here to help me deliver this information and help provide Starting points to those of you who want to continue learning. I have shayna destine Who is a fellow ut uh humanitarian librarian with me this evening? Hey shayna I think you're muted Hey, how are you? We're just a little uh background. Oh shayna. Uh, what's good? She's the human humanitarian librarian here at utk and um, she's a subject liaison for history and media medieval renaissance studies She's also a member of the lgbtq plus community and she's passionate about justice for oppressed communities across the world of african diaspora um Fun fact about shayna and i we both are j wu alumni's although i studied in providence and she studied in miami So did I leave anything else out shayna? I mean, there's a lot to me. There's a lot of layers here, but no I love i mean you can sum me up and I love black mirror black clothing and black people So with all that being said, um, thanks for agreeing to be here with me shayna And i'm super stoked to have you and get your opinion on in this great discussion So let's jump right into these questions. Um, I want to start out by asking you what barriers Do you transcend your migrants experience when trying to access information and on services? services and I ask this because The library provides access to information resources and services but Well, people don't often realize is that access to all information isn't equal and I like to put that into the context What we're covering today Yeah, I mean they have issues like I i'm going to be checking my nose. So if you see me look down this What I'm doing, um, so there's like, you know access to um, there's barriers to access to information regarding law and processes a lot of the time um, so, you know thinking about what's happening with like you know cases that they're involved in or you know legal assistance for if they're being violated or being um As you know assaulted in some kind of way There's always access with input barriers to access with employment And then access to health care, right? I mean we're in a pandemic There's you know access to maybe hormone hormone therapy that they're they're needing There is access to maybe mental health issues Like there's a lot of things that they have barriers for and I mean it's really on us to make that more accessible because If things are behind a paywall or if things or if folks don't have access to a laptop or anything like that Then it's like, you know, there's already Kind of like an information poverty there. There's a way there's already like an unequal starting point for folks. So yeah No, that's awesome. Thank you so much for that was a really great answer So now that we kind of have an idea of the barriers that interrupt access to information Um that the community has experienced because of say their gender identity and sexual orientation What resources does utk library have for those who want to learn more about the lgbtq? plus Latinx experience at the us and mesco border specifically So I um I went through our databases and there were two I wanted to highlight as a starting point, right? This is not by any means comprehensive. I want to say that But there is the women's studies international database And when I was looking through there if you look up I like that database first of all because if you put in let's say transgender It'll look up other terms that are related to transgender So you may it'll pull up gender variant. It'll pull up gender non-conforming, etc If you look up migrate migrant, you'll get um immigration You'll get emigration. You'll get those kinds of variants on that word and also it'll give you um refugees It'll give you displaced persons and it'll give you asylum seekers all if you just put in those terms It'll pull up related terms. So I like them a lot. Um, we also have a database called the lgbt source Um, and that one I look through it. I use similar terms I also you search coronavirus and it will pull up covid-19 It'll pull up SARS-CoV-2, etc related terms. Um, and they had really good articles There was one particularly called the federal, uh, judge declines to certify class of transgender ice detainees um, and it talks more about like getting transgender folks who are Female or who are you know who are women into women's detention centers For more safety, which is I mean not great because we should just not have detention centers But if we have to have them let's not put women in with men Because there's been a high rate of sexual assault obviously and then there's a lot of civil litigation notes for people who are suing the government for being wrongly detained or being deported or Things that were just not right with their case. Um, and there were a lot of those so that I found really interesting And then there was another article called migrating like a queen, which I thought was great So those are those are databases you can look at and some articles to get you started Thank you so much. That's super awesome And I know I say ut of library resources, but I do want to be honest I'm a millennial first thing I did was hop on the internet and check out um tiktok and YouTube and kind of seek out some nonprofit organizations that supported this And that's how I started to get my information. I will say, um This is just a jump off point That way you can kind of get your bearing on the information But if you went on like I I was looking through google because I like to do a quick google search because like that's Start from sometimes and I want to see what information it pulls up because I want to you know Like just to see if it's problematic or like what's happening there And there was actually I was actually really pleasantly surprised by a lot of the articles that came up because What I'm seeing is that people are writing their first-hand experience and then is get you know And this is the way of the of the day and it's getting pulled up in on On google a lot faster than the problematic stuff and a lot faster than the academic stuff So I found a lot of first-person narratives. Um when I just put in like, you know transgender and Um immigration and or detain or detention and stuff like that and it came up and it was beautiful Like I loved it. I mean I hate that they're going through that But I love that there's a platform for them not to be silenced if they you know if they can Yeah, I absolutely agree. I came by the same search. I'm actually found a youtube video. I think vice The channel owns it or something, but it was a great I'll eventually put the resource somewhere. It was a great video. Maybe you will run by um, but this basically This conversation leads me directly into the next question Which is what resources outside of the library are available to say students faculty and staff and even you know The public who want to engage in this conversation or be an active participant Fighting against inhumane treatment treatment at the border or any of the subjects we've really covered today So, of course, there's like national organizations you can kind of like look to and those would be like the national center for transgender equality Human rights watch the transgender law center was really good And then there's a u.s. Transgender survey which I came across that had really good information But I looked up this other grassroots organization called not one more deportation And they have like a lot of firsthand stories and they also have a lot of a list of grassroots organizations that they endorse So not, you know, not national organizations, but maybe more regional or um more specific And you can just like use that list copy paste it put in a word document and just start looking through Those organizations There was like literally probably like 50 or 60 of them. Yeah Um So I know you said this earlier, but I still want to repeat it. This is not an exhaustive list right at all But we really want to give you starting points and we don't want to overwhelm you because you know information overload That's a thing in our world today. We don't need to help so We just try not all good information. Not all information is good information. So Like, you know, give you a breadcrumbs so you could start Yeah, so we want for you to gather, you know, chain is giving you some um databases and articles to start from so you can Go ahead and start gathering um valid resources and information that you feel comfortable with and whatever media form that might be So we're talking video article even social media. Yeah, like that's great And then you can refer to it and decide if you want to engage in a conversation Or if you just want to listen on the conversation concerning these issues um So the last thing I kind of want to cover this evening is I'd like to discuss Some tips for researching these subjects and I kind of want to start out by giving a warning about headlines and leandra and uh, sarah talked about this earlier We've learned during covet 19 This global pandemic that headlines can be super inflammatory and misleading and this is why it's really important to click on the article And read it but also to kind of evaluate the source that it's coming from and what their intentions may be before you share Um, I also want to mention just in case you didn't know The media can also be super harmful, especially to victims of violence who um Maybe transgender non-binary or uh gender non-conforming people This is also something that leandra and sarah touched on earlier when they were talking about their paper Whenever news outlets raced to be the first to um Present information to the public they may use victims' dead names and misgender them which is a super painful experience and it's invalidating So as y'all start to research this topic and I just want for y'all to keep an eye out for Irresponsible and sometimes catchy Titles that may actually have false information or misleading informant and also titles that titles that are like fear mongering Right, you can read a title that all of a sudden this like like it's something about something simple But they've tied it to something that's catastrophic as a way to kind of pull on your emotions and get you to click and believe whatever's going on in there Um, so that's also something to think about. Yeah Um, also be aware of, you know, satirical sites such as the onion You don't want to be too quick to share things just because they seem funny and cool because um, that's how mistakes are made People believe things and we found that out during this whole situation. So So that's the thing I was looking I was also like thinking about this when me you were talking the other day and I was thinking about Like, you know, there's the obvious Like thinking about sources, right sources where these articles are coming from There are sources that we all recognize as being conservative, right that that's like, you know, fox news and bright bard and all those things You know, the washington times, whatever But there's also the ones that like kind of and there's also the ones that tell on themselves Right, you can tell because it's called like the american conservative So, you know, it's a conservative leaning site. So you're like, okay, which is not saying you shouldn't click on it But just knowing that when you're reading it so that you can kind of Understand how how that bias is going to change the information, right? But I think I was thinking about ones that kind of slip through the cracks, right? Because they don't tell on themselves. They have very like common names They're very much like they don't tell you either way until you click on it What kind of a site is and that would be like the american thinker the daily caller Like, you know, the daily wire the the free republic like those are not Immediately telling you, oh, we're right leaning or where this or where that But they are basically that they are, you know, and they're going to have a certain bias So I was just thinking about that like if you're not a person who recognizes those off top You might click on it not knowing and then all of a sudden you're getting you're ingesting this information And not realizing what the what what the source is? So what I suggest for people is like when you see a source when you see an article Like literally just click like take the name of the article put it into google because wikipedia literally has A blurb about every single source so it will tell you this is a conservative leading media Coming from this place and you know, whatever so you at least know that before you click on it And that's the same thing with left leaning, right? Like if you are looking for something click it or you take the name just google it So you understand what the source is before you even click on it So you couldn't before you even ingest that information Yeah, that's some awesome tips. Shayna. Um, is there anything you want to add to this subject that I didn't cover? Um, let me think let me see Um, I think that social media like we talked about earlier is wonderful. Um It does spread a lot of misinformation But if you can kind of like use your info, you know flex your info literacy skills beforehand it is a great place for Finding information and also for organizing so like you can find other people who are kind of for the same cause as you Um, and then I think that while you're looking through the little um, the couple of sites I gave people a couple of databases, you know build your search terms like as you're reading and um Getting new information. Maybe new laws. Maybe um different ways people refer to themselves. Maybe anything Write that down and then use that and go back in and search again because it might pull up different information for you Yeah and then I think that is it Oh use other words So again, if we're talking about, you know, think about asylum seeker think about refugee think about like those other words Pull up different things because that might be in the title and it might change your search results So yeah, that's the couple of of items. That is a really good advice. Shayna We were actually working on liveguides recently and nikki her back trick and uh, melanie We're showing off on the left-hand side of their live guide where they had started using other words to describe say COVID-19 like SARS and whatnot and how helpful it is to have those key terms off to the side to help people with their searches Because once again, we don't want to hear anybody from having access to the information. Um that we have at the library. So, um And also just you know, remember people aren't one thing So like, you know, think about your note the intersections of people's identity and use that in your search as well You know, nobody's just one thing. So like, you know, if you're looking for me and you just search woman You're gonna be i'm gonna be the 60 millionth result that you come up with but if you search maybe black woman queer woman, you know Fantastic woman from the south bronx. You might get me in the search number three so Yes, so now your search results as much as possible. Um Well, if you have nothing else, I really I appreciate your input on this subject Appreciate you taking the time out to join me. Shayna. It's always a lot. I love you Paris. Um, you know I love to everybody during the pandemic. Yeah So, um, great discussion. Wait before we go, I do want to leave our audience with a little bit of a charge Um, which is basically to consider being more aware of headlines that grab your attention and just be skeptical. Okay, they're gonna have misleading impossible. Um They're going to possibly have misleading information and I don't want for y'all to fall into that trap. So until next time Do that. Okay. Thank you Hello, I am Ingrid Ruffin and this is stories from the stacks where we discuss important things So far on the stories from the stacks we've focused on specific objects or stories That can be found online or in Hodges library Tonight we're going to dig a little deeper into the rich story of betsy b creakmore special collections Our guest tonight is assistant professor and manuscripts archivist Laura Romans She has been with the ut library since 2015 Welcome Laura Hey So first of all, how are you? I'm great. Um, very thankful to be here tonight. Um as a part of this program How are you? I am hanging in there So part of your research Is working on diversifying our special collections and possibly reaching further than the ut libraries um, so What does that mean and why are you even doing that? Great questions. Um, so You know special collections and archives right there the primary sources of history And across a lot of institutions historically These collections the ones that have been kept and the way they've been described Have often shown only a very very small slice of history or a very small slice of the population A lot of times under the falsehood of you know, objectivity or neutrality so You know working to diversify our collections Can mean a lot of different things and that can happen in a lot of different ways, but To answer sort of your in question the goal there is to um, really get a better representation of you know of history of people from marginalized communities Whose voices have been perhaps left out who haven't been documented in these Um collections or who have been documented, but you know, they've gone unidentified. They've gone undescribed, so a few of the ways that we do that Like I said, there's a lot of different ways and a lot of people in the special collections world are really doing this work um, and you know one way we can do that is to look at the collections we have And sort of re-examine them, you know who who is here who's present From marginalized communities that just haven't been You know brought to light, you know, their voices haven't been heard and let's try to make them heard make them more visible and then of course growing our collections and developing More representative collections that are truly showcasing the full spectrum of history The full spectrum of our culture and our region and all the things that are going on Okay, so When you say you're going out diversify you try to get all these objects and these things books letters All these you know different things. So are you going around? Knocking on people's doors and acting for their old stuff. Is this how it works? Not exactly. Um, kasey fox might have a different answer Just kidding kasey. Um, but you know, we work We we definitely are always thinking about, you know, how can we develop our collections? Um to really represent our mission as a part of the library as a part of the university a part of our community and You know, we are we work with partners inside the library inside The university in the community to Find interesting, um historical material that we think will You know support the research And the things that our researchers are doing Okay, so I guess that moves to the next question. What are some ways Researchers use our special collections Gosh ingrid, you know all over the place. Um, we have a lot of researchers And they're doing all kinds of things which is what makes special collections so cool. Um, You know, of course, we work a lot with our fabulous students and our staff and faculty on campus to do You know things that you might think of as like more traditional scholarship So writing articles publishing books presentations things like that But also our, you know, like I said, these materials are the primary sources of history and they can be used in so Many ways. So we also have people that use us as inspiration for Art for music different things like that just any kind of thing you can think of that people are Sort of like interpreting history Analyzing history Lots of different products come out of it and it's a lot of fun to watch Right, so I do know that the ut libraries. We actually have a project where we bring in artists Who have used our your special collections things that you've curated to create songs and music Hey, yeah, a little bit more about that Yeah, we um started that a couple years ago and it's called boundless Artists in the archives and it's a really great project where we invite music so far It's been musicians. We invite them in they look at a particular collection or maybe a theme across some collections and then You know, they use in different ways, however the material sort of inspires them to then Create music and we've had everything from like an americana band to a jazz artist Um, and so yeah, that's like a unique and exciting way that people Can come in use these primary sources But um, you know interpret it in different ways and use it to create something of their own You know, and it kind of like keeps this cycle going Yeah, so it can continues to telling the original person's story, but adding to the story Okay, so next question Craziest thing that you have ever found or written In special collections to grow us even There's so many. Um, and I feel like it changes all the time. You know, we're coming across just wild stuff a lot Um, but right now I would say The thing that comes to the top of my mind we have a lot of collections of papers from world war two veterans And one thing I'm always struck by is, you know, so many of these veterans This was the first time that they like not only traveled outside of their county But like outside of the country, you know, they're like traveling across the world And so a lot of them would pick up souvenirs different things to bring home And there have been some pretty weird things that they've kept and in one collection Um, a veteran kept a tiny figurine of a seahorse skeleton It was like no information really about it what it meant to them Um, but I just always thought that was a little strange but I guess it was sort of a piece of maybe where he had been during his uh, military service Right So maybe a future researcher could come in and kind of maybe illuminate that for us If somebody out there knows why people keep seahorse skeletons, let us know There's a story to tell for sure always Uh, okay, so when most people think of archivists, they think of indiana jones, of course I don't actually think he was an archivist. He was an adventurer or something Okay, traveling the world in such a valuable and significant objects. Um, what's one of the most interesting collections? What's can you tell us about one of our your most interesting collections acquisitions experiences? I used a lot of words there I knew what you were going for. Um, so first off, I'll say not quite indiana jones never experienced any snakes although Have experienced snakes skins in collections. So I guess that's close enough um, but I would say, you know thinking about um, meeting with people and working to take their collections in Just when I think about the most interesting things, it's usually that A lot of times, especially when people are handing over like their family's material Um, you know things that are just like really sentimental to them It's actually cool to be a part of that process. Sometimes they haven't maybe looked at the stuff in a while And so as you're packing it up and taking it To preserve it. They kind of go through this process of like remembering things remembering their family Different things like that. So it's always cool to sort of like be Kind of a fly on the wall in that process As they're sort of like reconnecting with the material and then sort of like passing it on for other people to appreciate and use Okay, so we have A lot of collections, right A lot of them are digitized or Like we have so many that we haven't even been able to put Everything out there for the public to access. So what's one of your favorite collections to work with and why? Yeah, so I would say, you know to people that know me, they're going to be like laura not again We get it but um because I could talk about this forever But my favorite collection is definitely one that I've done a lot of research on And that's the virginia p moor collection And virginia p moor was the first home demonstration agent in tennessee And what that means what that means is in the early 1900s she traveled the state particularly in rural areas and she taught girls young girls school age girls how to Farm and can their own produce And then that sort of eventually extended into more Other types of home making skills But one of the things that I really loved about this collection and how I got like so into virginia moor was just thinking about how She sort of operated within this very like traditional sphere Of you know, like women Being in the house doing these home making things But in a way she was like really radicalizing What they were doing she was teaching these girls, you know How to can their own produce so that they could better feed their families Throughout the year how they could sell it and make money how to keep up with their finances So I just always like it's a small collection. It's only a couple of boxes But I just always love going to it has really great pictures in it of girls with their like cans of tomatoes That they're so proud of So that's just that one is near and dear to my heart Yeah, that is a very special one. Okay, so this is my last question Hey, I I I have some pretty at least I think Pretty interesting old things just hanging around my house Museum Museum quality if you will or maybe I don't know Uh, so if I wanted to donate something How do I do that? Do I just drop it off at the door? Leader in a random place in the library, how would I do that? No, no, no, don't don't go to the trouble of dropping it off for us But we are definitely open to having conversations with people Who think they might have something that fits into what we collect You know things that fit our collection mission and our priorities So I would encourage people to visit our website You can navigate to it from the library's homepage But you can also go scrolling on the bottom here to lib.utk.edu slash special And that that's where you can learn everything you'd want to know about special collections But especially about the types of material that we collect and how to get in touch with us If somebody is interested in starting that conversation We'd love to do it Okay, so thank you so much Laura and once again, if you'd like to know more About our special collections, you can go to lib.utk.edu Backslash special and get to know some of our archivists and very special librarians Yeah, thanks Ingrid. Thanks Laura. Bye. Bye So here we are again at the end of another show This is our third episode and it's the last and one is a very short first season We're really enjoying doing this guys, but uh, you know, it's a pandemic. We're tired So We uh plan to be back though. So if you have uh, if you have any ideas on topics you'd like to hear about Do let us know Casey Ingrid, do you have anything before we go? I do find it interesting that we Are ending as we began we began with cat cats and snakes and now We're ending with cat Full circle The circle of life All right then that's it for tonight and uh, we'll see you again in the fall