Bethany Aylward

I graduated with an MA in Librarianship from the University of Sheffield in 2018 and a BA in Russian and History from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies UCL in 2014. I am on the organising committee of the Sheffield Feminist Archive as well as a trustee of the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies a library, archive and cultural heritage charity in London.

PhD project

My research focuses on the intersection of community archiving and social justice movements in contemporary protest culture. The interconnectedness of these movements' development in the context of technological advancement, has not been fully examined by archival literature.

This project will contribute to our understanding of the role activism plays in creating, sustaining, and using independent archives in the twenty-first century. The use of digital platforms within the life cycle of social movements highlights a tangible need for archives that interact with activism to consider web archiving strategies if they are to continue preserving participation in significant causes of our time.

My fieldwork explored the activist-archival landscape of post-industrial cities in England and Scotland; their current web archiving capabilities; and their hopes and fears for the future in terms of capturing content and how it will be used.

Supervisors

• Andrew Cox
• Sara Vannini