By creating a public – and publicly accessible - record of collective experience, community archives shape group identity, agency, and belonging. This research team will produce and provide access to archives of the present in partnership with diverse communities across the city whose histories exist outside the logic of institutional capture.

The faculty coleaders for this research group are Prithi Kanakamedala and Kathy McDonald. The group's senior advisors are Ed Miller, Amy Herzog, Duncan Faherty, Polly Thistlethwaite, and Stephen Klein. 

The CUNY Graduate Center PhD student fellows for the 2017-2019 Seminar on Public Engagement and Collaborative Research are Daisy Atterbury, Karen Okigbo, Jules Salomone, Jaime Shearn Coan, Janet Werther, Diane Yoong, and Kasey Zapatka.