Free and open to the public, the symposium “Archives, Memory, & the Present Past of Puerto Rico” is part of the Rooted + Relational Research initiative at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies (CENTRO), Hunter College-CUNY. The symposium, taking place on May 2, 2025, from 10:00am to 7:00pm (EDT), will address the material and theoretical importance of the archive in contemporary scholarship and research practices. CENTRO en El Barrio is located at 2180 3rd Avenue, New York, New York.
Description: We’re celebrating our Rooted + Relational Research initiative with a symposium aimed at contending with the material and theoretical importance of the archive in contemporary scholarship and research practices. Through a day of panels, the inaugural cohort of CENTRO research associates, hybrid-fellows, artists in residence, and dissertation fellow will engage with contestation, archival reckoning, archival architecture, facilities, and accessibility, and quotidian interventions and forms of archival refusal. Join us as we illuminate how CENTRO expands Puerto Rican studies and how we can best tend to its past and futures.
Welcome & Opening Remarks by Director
11:00 AM – 11:15 AM
Panel 1 – Expanding Archival Methodologies
11:15 AM – 12:30 PM
This panel will examine the future of Puerto Rican studies through the lens of archival research, exploring how evolving methodologies can challenge existing frameworks and open new avenues for examination. Panelists will discuss the intersections between archival practices and decolonial scholarship, considering how the archive can be used to rethink Puerto Rico’s past, present, and future.
Moderated by Vanessa Pérez-Rosario. Presentations by Daniel Morales-Armstrong, Joaquín Villanueva, Cristina Pérez Jiménez, and Amanda Guzmán
Panel 2 – Contesting Archives & Authority
12:45 PM – 2:00 PM
This panel will explore how the politics of ownership and access play out in archival spaces, particularly when dealing with contested materials related to Puerto Rican history, culture, and politics. Discussions will center around how scholars and activists are challenging traditional notions of who has the right to control, curate, and narrate the archive.
Moderated by Cristel Jusino Díaz. Presentations by Shakti Castro, Alberto Ortiz Díaz, Emma Amador, and Lorraine Torres Colón.
Lunch and Community Microgrant Program Presentation
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Presented by Rosa Cruz Cordero and Essah Diaz.
Panel 3 – Archival Reckonings & Praxis
3:30 PM – 4:45 PM
What happens when we contest or reject the dominant archival systems? This panel will focus on acts of resistance and refusal that take place in archival spaces by analyzing oral histories, community-based records, or alternative forms of knowledge. Panelists will discuss how these practices reshape the boundaries of the archive.
Moderated by Essah Diaz. Presentations by Nayda Collazo-Llorens, Keishla Rivera-Lopez, Karrieann Soto Vega, and Xenia Rubinos.
Keynote Presentation by Quiara Alegría Hudes
For more information, see https://centropr.hunter.cuny.edu/event/archives-memory-the-present-past-of-puerto-rico/
[Photo above: Bodega Scene. Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library & Archives, Hunter College, CUNY.]