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 a Trustee and the former art librarian of the Society for Co-operation and Soviet Studies a library, archive and cultural heritage charity in London and I sit on the organising group of the Sheffield Feminist Archive.

PhD project

My research focuses on the intersection of the community archiving initiatives and social justice movements in digital environments. The interconnectedness of these movements' development, particularly since the advent of the digital age, has not been fully examined by archival literature.

This project will contribute to understanding the role activism plays in creating, sustaining and using independent archives in the twenty-first century. The use of digital platforms within protest culture 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 field-work will investigate the activist-archival landscape in South Yorkshire; their current web archiving capabilities; and their hopes for the future in terms of capturing content and how it will be used.

Supervisors

• Andrew Cox
• Sara Vannini