Background: I am Caitlin Abadir-Mullally and I wholeheartedly enjoyed my summer as the John Foster and Janet Avery Dulles Archival Fellow at Princeton’s Mudd Library. I am a Philadelphia-based archivist with an interest in digital archives and reparative description.
Previous Experience: Prior to my work at Princeton University Library, I was a project archivist at the Legacy Center: Archives & Special Collections of Drexel University and born-digital intern at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts at the University of Pennsylvania. My first time processing a collection was during an internship at the John J. Wilcox, Jr. Archives at the William Way LGBT Community Center in 2021. Before I decided to pursue a career as an archivist, I was the exhibition and gallery administrator at the ONE Archives Foundation.
Education: As of May 2023, I hold a Master of Library and Information Science, with an Archives Management Concentration, from Simmons University, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts, School of Art.
Future Plans: After my fellowship, I will join the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Library and Archives team as an archivist.
My Work at Mudd: At Mudd Library, I processed accruals to collections in both the University Archives and Public Policy Papers, including the Margaret Snyder Papers (MC096), Mina Mauerstein-Bail Papers (MC264), Women’s World Banking Records (MC198), and the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Alliance Records (AC037). I was able to focus on collections of women in international development within the Public Policy Papers. I processed the hybrid collection of the Angus Deaton Papers (MC312), as well as the Merrell Noden Papers (AC501), which contained audiovisual elements; processed the born-digital accrual of 3.5 terabytes to the Senior Thesis Collection; worked with library IT staff to clean up duplicate and unlinked agents in ASpace; provided reference services to researchers in the Mudd reading room; and collaborated with two archivists to deliver a lecture on processing for the Archives Research and Collaborative History Program (ARCH). (ARCH is an annual program at Princeton that brings students and program facilitators from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to Princeton for critical conversations about archival practice.)
Other interests: Outside of my professional work as an archivist, I have a studio art practice. My exhibition, Desecration: A Process, will be open to the public at AUTOMAT Collective in Philadelphia August 10 – September 2, 2023. I am a member of Batikh Batikh, an artist collective, pop-up cinema and gallery centering South West Asian North African (SWANA) women, queer and local artists in Philadelphia. I am passionate about sharing access to diasporic queer SWANA joy and complexity, and the agency of the living to decide how their narratives are preserved.
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