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The UMass Amherst Libraries have announced Taelore Marsh as the Irma McClaurin Black Feminist Archives (BFA) archivist to the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center (SCUA). In her new role as BFA archivist, Marsh will preserve and provide access to the historical papers of Black women and their allies, ensuring the stories contained within these collections are featured in coursework and scholarly research.

Founded by Black feminist anthropologist, award-winning poet and author, past president of Shaw University and higher-education leader Irma McClaurin, the BFA documents the lives of Black women artists, activists and academics whose wide-ranging contributions have driven social change and shaped local, national and global conversations around critical cultural issues. The BFA acts as a living, growing resource for scholarly and community researchers and will function as a training center for Black archivists to participate actively in centering their own stories, to amplify historically silenced Black voices in the historical record, and to advocate for and protect the endangered legacies of Black women.

Marsh was previously a research assistant and processing archivist at Duke University, where she contributed to the preservation and access of more than 1,200 oral histories on Jim Crow segregation. She received her certification in archival studies from Louisiana State University, further strengthening her expertise in archival preservation and access. As a graduate student in history at North Carolina Central University, she led an undergraduate class on oral history methodology and was awarded a teaching assistantship for the course Black Experience Since 1865.

“Ms. Marsh’s passion for the BFA’s mission—for ensuring the voices and selves of Black women, femme-identifying women of color, and their allies are visible and heard in the historical record—is matched only by her talent,” says Adam Ware, associate dean of Special Collections and University Archives. “Dr. McClaurin’s vision for the BFA is bold and needed, and Taelore’s efforts to realize that vision will deepen SCUA’s reputation as ‘the archives of social change.’”

“An archive is a continuous journey, not bound by a beginning or an end, where stories unfold over time,” says Nandita Mani, dean of University Libraries. “These stories highlight the connections people have—with organizations, each other, and their families. Taelore Marsh’s vision will guide and nurture these connections, steering the growth of the BFA as it evolves from vision to reality.”

More information about the BFA and samples of its collections can be found on the SCUA website.