Donate on Sun Devil Giving Day to support Community-Driven Archives and opportunities to empower global learners.
Sirada Kananurak is a graduate student working towards a master’s degree in Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies through the School of Social Transformation and is an enthusiastic memory keeper. Originally from Thailand, Kananurak utilized resources, tech lending and expertise from ASU Library’s Community-Driven Archives to bring her documentary project to life and preserve stories from her community.
After hearing CDA Director Nancy Godoy present in a class, learning about the Bj Bud Memorial Archives and attending an archives workshop, Kananurak brought her materials to the library and learned to scan them with help from archivist Jasmine Torrez.
“CDA and Jasmine’s expertise really helped bring my project to life because archives are such a big part of my project, which is on recording queer oral histories and bridging dialogues between younger and older lesbians and sapphics,” said Kananurak. “Having these materials shown in my documentary, thanks to CDA, is meaningful to building and preserving queer histories that are often overlooked.”
Kananurak also used this new archiving knowledge to create an impact with Local to Global Justice, a student organization at ASU. She used the lab’s equipment to help preserve photographs, past programs and posters. By offering cameras, scanners and other tools to check out, CDA helps lessen the financial burden for students.
“This was really meaningful to us as an organization because we just celebrated our 25th anniversary this February,” Kananurak said. “Being able to digitize our archives and learn how to properly preserve them with the archival kit that Jasmine gave me helped us create our own system of archives at the organization.”
On Sun Devil Giving Day, you can make a difference for students like Sirada. When you donate to CDA, you help preserve stories and empower community resilience across the globe.
“I want people to know that this is not only impactful in the United States, but also across the globe, because I came from across the continent. The work that CDA is doing and how I’ve engaged with them will make an impact in Thailand as well,” said Kananurak.
“I believe it is such an important time to preserve our personal and our community’s histories. These are more valuable than one may think, and CDA has all the resources and expertise for you to start,” Kananurak added.
Make a gift today on Sun Devil Giving Day! Thank you for creating opportunities for Sun Devils to learn and thrive!
