Guest blogger: Alana Okonkwo (University Archives student intern)

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February 12, 2026 | Alana Okonkwo

Alana Okonkwo smiling as she holds up a photograph from the collection.

Hi! My name is Alana Okonkwo and I am an Undergraduate Senior studying Archaeology and African and African American Studies. Over the past two years, I have been working as a student processing assistant in the University Archives through a Department of African and African American Studies (DAAAS) internship to organize, rehouse, and describe boxes of materials relating to the history of the department. Specifically, I focused on processing collection addenda (SC1484 ARCH-2024-136) transferred to the University Archives in summer 2024. Throughout these two years, I received mentorship from Assistant University Archivist Hanna Ahn where I learned the archiving process. Using the new skills I learned, I helped archive documents, photos, and audiovisual materials relating to the Program in African and African American Studies for generations of researchers to come.

I decided to become a student archivist for DAAAS because I wanted to learn more about the history of the department. I was introduced to the world of archives through Racial Justice and Social Equity Librarian Felicia Smith’s Winter 2024 course, “Digital Traces.” DAAAS was first established as the Program in African and African American Studies in 1969. It was one of the ten demands that the Black Student Union challenged Stanford University to address in the wake of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination, in a groundbreaking student movement called “Take Back the Mic.” While the first Black Studies program in the United States was founded at San Francisco State University in 1968, Stanford’s Program in African and African American Studies became the first African and African American Studies program at a private institution in the United States. DAAAS became departmentalized in October 2023 by the Board of Trustees, and officially launched in January 2024 thanks to the unwavering racial justice activism and advocacy by students, staff, and faculty at Stanford University and beyond. By archiving artifacts of DAAAS’s history, I learned snippets of this history spanning several decades.

The records in the Stanford University Department of African and African American Studies collection tell a story of resistance against institutional racism, mentorship in educational pursuits on interdisciplinary topics, and community joining together to address issues affecting Africa and the Black Diaspora.

A large lecture hall filled with students facing a lecturer, who is seated on a desk. — Photograph of Dr. Claudine Gay giving a lecture on “Race, Representation, and Trust” at Stanford University between 2000-2006, Box 14, Folder 72, Stanford University, Department of African and African American Studies, records (SC1484). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

I enjoyed learning the technical skills necessary for preserving material that records pivotal points in history. I began my work by carefully surveying the contents of each box given by DAAAS to the Stanford University Archives to identify general themes of its contents. Sorting through handwritten meeting minutes, VHS tapes, and black-and-white photographs felt like I was opening up a time capsule and glimpsing into the past. After examining the contents of each box, I compiled a list of overarching categories that the DAAAS records could fit into with the assistance of Assistant University Archivist Hanna Ahn and Archivist for Processing and Discovery Strategy Claudia Willett. These categories included Departmental records, Promotional materials, Course materials, Student work, Photographs, and Audiovisual materials.

After creating general themes, I rehoused the materials into archival folders that support long-term preservation of the materials. The folders were organized by sub-themes. For example, photos from the African and African American Studies Learning Expeditions were placed together in a different Photographs box from the photos from lecture series. Once all of the materials were organized into their appropriate boxes, I began the detailed process of describing the contents of each folder and transcribing that description onto a spreadsheet. This process involved reading and analyzing the materials I had placed into the folders, identifying time periods that could be best associated with the document, and describing the events that took place in that item. In doing so, I was able to highlight significant details of the folder contents to ultimately assist researchers with understanding which folders are most pertinent to their interests.

The description phase of the archival process was my favorite part of my experience as a student archivist because it allowed me to spend time with each artifact and learn its story. For example, through examining a scrapbook with photos from 1987-2007, I learned that award-winning author Chinua Achebe came to Stanford University to participate in a book signing of his novel Things Fall Apart and give a lecture. Spending time with those photographs opened my imagination to the conversations that were sparked as a consequence of students reading the book, given Things Fall Apart’s new perspective to African historical fiction that was unlike anything in its canon.

Author Chinua Achebe sitting behind a table of books and signing a copy for a fan. — Photograph of Chinua Achebe with copies of *Things Fall Apart* for a book signing at the Stanford University Bookstore between 1987-2007, Box 15, Folder 9, Stanford University, Department of African and African American Studies, records (SC1484). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Once each folder was described, I selected specific documents, photographs, and audiovisual materials that I thought should be digitized. I decided which materials should be digitized based on the confidentiality of the material, who was photographed, and what story it tells about Black life and education at Stanford. Some of the materials I decided to digitize include photographs of Gwendolyn Brooks reading poetry with Stanford students at the Ujaama dorm, the Program in African and African American Studies Newsletter from 2015 featuring Angela Davis teaching classes at Stanford, and recordings of Stanford’s Ethnic Studies Forum in April 1995.

Through becoming a student archivist for the Department of African and African American Studies, I have unlocked my newfound passion for archiving and telling stories. I hope to use the skills I gained as a student archivist to tell big and small stories at museums, libraries, nonprofit organizations, and in the government in the future. I am grateful for the dedicated support and trust DAAAS has given me to preserve its collection and I am thankful for the Stanford University Archives staff’s support in mentoring me throughout the archival process. I hope that generations of researchers and students will use the archived records for their research and education.