We're excited to announce that Obden Mondésir is the new Associate Director of the Barnard Archives and Special Collections! Obden most recently was the Oral History Manager at the Weeksville Heritage Center and the Outreach Archivist at Queens College. At the Weeksville Heritage Center, he spent the last 5 years leading oral history projects; this included Meals as Collective Memory and the Black Joy project, managing the oral history collections, and coordinating public programming on archiving personal and family history. At Queens College, he managed the oral history component of SEEK documentation project that collected interviews from staff and alumni with some being a part of the SEEK rebellion where faculty and students demanded self-determination and representation within the spirit of third worldism. (SEEK is a program designed to meet the needs of students who are considered to be economically disadvantaged and academically underprepared.)
Obden has extensive experience in oral history methodology, community archiving, and public programming and was a 2015 fellow for the Queens Memory and 2017 West African Research Center.
Please join us in welcoming Obden to the Barnard Archives!